Prevenge

Ruth is a pregnant woman on a killing spree dictated by her unborn child, seemingly holding society responsible for the absence of a father.

It surely earns points on originality, this is a really unusual and transgressive movie. Unfortunately loses points because of an unlikeable protagonist and continuosly creepy images and situations, all this leaving a really bad taste in your mouth while watching it making you feel uncomfortable and not in a "good" way (this anyway may ultimately be the end goal of the filmaker and may appeal to a specific audience). You may be tempted/intrigued to see it or even like it if you like deep transgression and you are bored by traditional movies.

One of my partner's strangest pregnancy cravings was to consume this dark slasher film before she popped - hastily written and filmed in the weeks before Alice Lowe herself did likewise. The fact that this authentic angle is there gives this otherwise unfocused narrative a strange gravity. It ultimately amounts to just one improbable murder after the next but Lowe's glowering sarcasm gives each interaction (with a succession of brilliantly cast folk) a nice edge. It does feel a bit first-drafty and there are some holes in it that make Prevenge unravel before the finale but the nature of how it was filmed and why I watched it will likely leave this particular film as an uncanny experience. A dark night of horrors before a totally new day.

Watched this late on a Friday night to kill some time before I could sleep knowing nothing about it other than 'I enjoyed Sightseers' and was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Alice Lowe has done a fantastic job with this project as it is very well written, well directed and well cast. All the acting is very good and it doesn't come across as being a low budget film, despite only having a modest £100000. The concept (pregnant woman goes on killing spree under the command of her unborn child) sounds very corny, but is actually extremely well done and doesn't come across as cringeworthy at any point. The writing is funny and quite suspenseful and the characters are interesting, realistic and I found myself sympathising with the more likeable ones.

Overall I would recommend watching this film if you enjoy traditional black British humour. You shouldn't be disappointed.

Wondering what to do for a hour and a half and wanting to see something just slightly different I stumbled across PREVENGE . Low budget British black comedy written , directed and starring Alice Lowe about a pregnant female going on a killing spree. Hmm . There's a danger that this sounds like a vanity project but I always give a film a chance and did notice that this page is very positive . I did double check that the reviewers were genuine because when you've got an unknown film on this with glowing reviews this usually means they're written by shills who give themselves away only registering when the film is released and never ever writing a comment for any other film

Truth be told PREVENGE exceeded all my expectations and found myself being caught up in the story very quickly. There's not a lot to the premise of "Deluded pregnant woman murders people she doesn't like" but this hardly matters . Ms Lowe who was seven months pregnant during shooting production has made a very quirky offbeat and violent black comedy that caused me to constantly smile. The idea isn't very persuasive , realistic or original but for some strange reason the details such as an aggressive charity worker turning up at someone's door and being greeted in an equally aggressive manner does come across as being somewhat naturalistic. Characters react and interact in ways you might expect them to out in the real world

As I write this one American reviewer has posted a rather negative review. To be fair to an international audience PREVENGE has obviously been made for a domestic audience and you'd need to understand the dark sense of humour we have in Britain . Dare I say we Brits have a very nasty sense of humour ? Regardless of cultural sensibilities PREVENGE is an enjoyable black comedy

I'm no doctor, nor a woman but I can imagine Pregnancy is stressful. Not as stressful as Alice Lowe's Ruth in her 2016 horror comedy Prevenge. She's got a bun in the oven and it might just turn out to be sourdough. So the reel question is... that joke was bad enough, let's just get to the review.

I truly believe that comedy is cultural. Some jokes are universal (slapstick for example) but some are region-specific. This is how I feel towards Prevenge. It is a movie made for England. The entire thing hangs together like a surrealist painting of what pregnancy feels like. Never letting you feel relaxed in its company, and never giving you the full picture. Only glimpses of what could be the correct outcome.

For this I admire it. Bold films are hard to find and Prevenge (irrelevant of its actual quality) is a bold film. To make a woman appear to be possessed by her unborn child forcing her into a homicidal spree is quite the task, to attempt to make that outline a comedy is even more complicated. However, for the most part, Prevenge succeeds.

It's inarguable that Prevenge is a film you have to buy into. You have to allow yourself to be submerged into this logical insanity that Ruth (our protagonist) inhabits, but if you do then it will hand you something back. Something deep and prying, something unexpectedly nasty but ultimately rewarding.

I can understand that if you don't want to enjoy Prevenge then you won't. The film will become impenetrable. The lead will be annoying and the storyline intolerable. I don't know if I can recommend Prevenge with a clean conscious. I found the feature to be unsettling, disturbing, and most importantly of quite brilliant. This is a film that wants to reach deep inside us and draw out our feelings. It doesn't long to be funny, it wants to be disturbing. Prevenge is proof that it's easy to be gory and nasty; it's complicated to be distressing.

The film is carried by Alice Lowe, who writes, directs, and stars in her creation. This is her vision. Form her previous work I knew that Alice has a dull stillness about her, this is capitalized to maximum effect in Prevenge, she can portray sorrow and comedy in the one expression and that makes her unique. This is made all the more impressive when it is revealed that she was pregnant during the shooting of the film. There is nothing flashy or impressive about the directing or style of the film aside from it matches the bizarre dreamlike storyline.

If you want a film that has brains in its head but is also mad as a bag of frogs you will be hard pushed to not put Prevenge at the top of that list. Think Babadook with a laughter track.

7 evil babies out of 10