Grafted is the type of film that has me excited to see what its director and co-writer, Sasha Rainbow, does next. There’s a lot of promise in this feature debut and some truly memorable scenes, even if the tone and some of the concepts are a bit uneven. Despite its flaws, Grafted is an entertaining watch. It works best when it hones in on the immigrant experience and the plight of its protagonist.

The film stars Joyena Sun as Wei, a promising medical student. She moves from China to New Zealand to live with her aunt, played by Xiao Hu, and her snobby cousin Angela (Jess Hong). Though Wei excels at school, she can’t make any friends. Angela and her circle of mean girls constantly berate and laugh at Wei. Still, it’s clear that Wei will rise to the top of her class, despite the language and cultural barriers. She’s determined to continue her father’s work, who dies quite brutally in the beginning of the film trying to develop a revolutionary skin graph technology.

Through her hard work and determination, Wei picks up her father’s work and succeeds where he failed. However, one of her professors, Paul (Jared Turner), steals her work. At that point, the film morphs into a revenge splatterfest with several gruesome scenes. The special effects here look great for what they are. However, there are moments viewers will get a sense the team wanted to go even further. Most likely, they were limited due to the budget. The list of films that inspired the concept at the core of this movie feel endless. These include everything from Eyes without a Face to Face/Off. It is a bloody good time watching Wei enact her revenge on those who deserve it, either for berating her, or, in the case of her professor, stealing her work.

The film struggles, however, with its tone and concepts. On the one hand, there are moments when this film plays out like a clever social satire. But then the tone shifts, and it becomes a more serious revenge thriller. Additionally, the feature tackles a heck of a lot of themes, everything from the immigrant experience to beauty standards. Because it’s trying to do so much, its concepts and themes never quite gel. The way Rainbow showcases Wei’s plight and experience are some of the strongest sequences, more so than the critique of the beauty industry. This film works best when Wei’s personal narrative becomes front and center, and Sun turns in a good performance. It makes her actions, for as gory as they are, feel warranted. Nearly everyone around her wrongs her.

Despite its muddled tone and shifting concepts, Grafted has more positives than not. This is a stylish film that showcases Rainbow’s talents as a director to watch. It works best when it highlights a personal narrative about an immigrant trying to do her best, before unleashing revenge on those who deserve it.