What if your baby could communicate with you from the womb and force you to kill people? Well, it would be outlandish and terrifying, and also happens to be the premise for Alice Lowe’s directorial debut Prevenge. We can safely assume it’ll be one of the most unsettling films we’ll see next year.
Leave it to British filmmakers to tackle the subject of motherhood and deliver a very dark comedy. In fact, leave it to British filmmakers to tackle any deep and meaningful subject and deliver a film we’d never expect. Their sensibilities almost always guarantees that they’ll take a different angle on a subject than their American (or European) counterparts would.
Lowe, best known for co-writing and starring in Ben Wheatley’s “hilarious” Sightseers is not one to shy away from a dark subject matter, and ironically shot Prevenge on a tight schedule while being seven months pregnant. She recalls thinking “I can’t do anything now because I’m pregnant,” and then thought “Hang on, I could make a project around that!” Her real life pregnancy gives more authenticity to the film, as Lowe’s performance is much more realistic given she was actually with child instead of wearing a prosthetic belly.
It speaks volumes that Lowe that the project chose to shoot a project about a woman and her unborn baby driving her to gruesomely murder people whist pregnant, but we’d prefer that any day to Hollywood actresses hiding their pregnancies in films and TV shows.
Based on its synopsis and trailer, the film should play like your typical revenge movie, will most likely be a challenging experience for viewers who don’t appreciate dark comedies, or who happen to be scared of pregnant ladies. Judging from the early reviews, it looks like this is a home run for Lowe as she directed it, wrote it and produced. That is no small feat by any standard.
In case you’re as morbidly intrigued as we are, Prevenge releases in the UK in February. While it still doesn’t have a release date in the US, the fact that is hitting festival circuit means that it should make it across the pond sooner rather than later.
In the meanwhile, if you’re in the mood for a truly pitch-black film about pregnancy, take a peak at the French film Inside. It's some disturbing shit.
Watch the Prevenge trailer here.
