Prevenge

Alice Lowe directs and stars in this darkly comic tale of a pregnant woman with murder on her gestating foetus’s mind

Film Review by Patrick Gamble | 09 Feb 2017
Film title: Prevenge
Director: Alice Lowe
Starring: Alice Lowe, Jo Hartley, Katie Dickie, Gemma Whelan, Kayvan Novak
Release date: 10 Feb
Certificate: 15

“You'll have no control over your mind or body anymore,” a midwife (Hartley) says while explaining to the pregnant Ruth (Lowe) that a high-pitched noise could cause milk to fire out of her nipples like a water canon. Little does she know that mum-to-be has already murdered someone at the behest of the malevolent foetus gestating inside her.

Best known for her role in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, Lowe directs herself in Prevenge, a serial killer film that wears its influences on its sleeve. Combining genre thrills with pitch-black humor, the mood of the film suggests a 70s slasher as filtered through Lowe's own brand of excruciating comedy. By subverting pregnancy horror tropes, Prevenge roots its genre clichés in something more authentic.

Lowe, who was seven months pregnant at the time of shooting, draws from her own experiences, and behind all the gore and lacerating humour there's a tenderness that speaks about grief, prepartum depression and societal expectations surrounding motherhood. Lowe's directing career might be in the embryonic stage, but with Prevenge she's created a bold and devilishly enjoyable debut.


Released by Kaleidoscope Entertainment

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