Warning! SPOILERS for Fresh.
Approximately 33 minutes into the movie, Hulu's Fresh takes a horrific turn when it is revealed that Steve, the film's male love interest, is a cannibal who entraps and slowly kills young women for profit. Here are all the hints that foreshadow this twist and suggest that Steve is not quite what he seems. Played by Sebastian Stan, Steve is an awkward, yet strangely sweet plastic surgeon who meets the film's protagonist, Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), at a grocery store. Thoroughly demoralized by the modern dating scene and negative experiences with dating apps, Noa is quickly charmed by Steve and agrees to take a romantic trip with him after two successful dates.
From there, what started as a painfully relatable rom-com becomes an outright horror movie. However, unlike the protagonists in many films in the horror genre, Noa does not seem incautious, illogical, or unintelligent. Fresh waits so long before showing its true colors, namely because it wants the audience to be lulled into the same false sense of security that Noa is. She doesn't make any ridiculous decisions, or take more risks than any other woman in the real world does when agreeing to a date. After two dates in which Steve decidedly did not kidnap her, there is no reason for Noa to expect anything of the sort to happen on the third.
Steve has no serious red flags that would be cause for alarm, which makes it all the more upsetting when he confesses his true intentions for Noa. However, in hindsight, there are a few key moments that set up Fresh's disturbing twist. Knowing how the story unfolds, here are all the signs pointing towards Steve's cannibalistic turn.
Steve Says He Doesn't Eat Animals
When Noa, played by Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones, has a meal with Steve, she is embarrassed when he declines her offer to share her short ribs. Steve tells her, "I just don't eat animals." The way he phrases his statement is telling in hindsight: instead of saying he's a vegetarian or that he doesn't eat meat, he is careful to specify that what he dislikes is specifically animal meat. Later, it becomes clear that this is because he only eats human meat, which he apparently finds so appealing that nothing else can compare.
He Makes Sure Noa Has No Family Right Away
On Steve and Noa's first date, Steve doesn't waste any time before asking Noa about her family - or lack thereof. Noa tells him that she's an only child who is estranged from her mother, and whose father died years ago. MCU actor Sebastian Stan's charmingly self-aware and self-deprecating Steve then mentions his own mother who ed away. He suggests that they cheers over both having dead parents, illustrating his pitch-black shade of dark humor that will later become sinister and unhinged.
Once Steve has Noa trapped, she gets to know a little bit about his other victims and discovers that they all seem to have something in common - they are unattached, and therefore have nobody to come looking for them when they go missing. Knowing this, straight away during their first date, Steve was clearly trying to assess whether Noa had any loved ones that might notice her disappearance. Though Noa doesn't have any family, she does tell Steve about her best friend, Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs), who he mistakenly underestimates and discounts.
He Doesn't Have Any Social Media
Mollie becomes suspicious of Sebastian Stan's Steve when she discovers that he does not have an Instagram, or any other form of social media. While this seems like a bit of an overreaction at the time, Fresh proves that Mollie is right about Steve being shady - his real name is Brendan, and he has a wife and two kids he never mentions to Noa. The red flag raised here is really less about a lack of social media presence and more about Mollie's immediate wariness of Steve. As Noa's best friend, she instinctually knew that something was off about him. If there was anything that should have given Noa pause in regards to Steve, it was that.
