People Fainted While Watching This Gory Cannibal Movie

In what could be seen as the ultimate endorsement, people literally passed out while watching a screening of Raw, a gory horror movie about a vegetarian who becomes a cannibal, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week.

Directed by Julia Ducournau, the French film, which won the FIPRESCI Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, centers on "a shy, vegetarian student at a veterinary college (who) develops an insatiable lust for flesh as the result of a gruesome hazing ritual," according to TIFF.

The main character, Justine, "is overtaken by unusual cravings. Her shy demeanor is broken by aggressive outbursts."

Apparently those outbursts were too intense for the TIFF crowd to handle at a midnight screening Monday night at Ryerson University.

"The film became too much for a couple patrons," TIFF spokesman Ryan Werner told the Hollywood Reporter. "An ambulance had to be called to the scene."

Witnesses reported seeing a stretcher in the college's lobby.

"People may have passed out and/or vomited from how intense Raw was. What a movie," tweeted Dave Baldwin, a film writer who was in attendance.

No fancy award from Cannes can compete with that review.

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