Prevenge

We all know that pregnant women are supposed to get strange cravings. Most of the time these are usually nothing more than for the odd toastie in the middle of the night with perhaps a disgusting filling or two. Ruth's cravings, on the other hand, are a good deal darker. Egged on by the voice of her unborn baby girl Ruth gets a craving to kill people and it would seem with justification since all of her victims were, in some way, responsible for the death of her baby's father.

"Prevenge", in case you hadn't guessed it, is a comedy and a very black one. It was written and directed by the multi-talented Alice Lowe who, up until now, was better known as the female half of the team that brought you "Sightseers". She also plays Ruth, and plays her superbly, and her victims are made up of a host of outstanding British character players, including the monstrously underused Kate Dickie. Naturally, this isn't a film that will appeal to everyone, (I think pregnant mothers should stay well clear), but if you have the same very sick sense of humour that I do then seek it out; you certainly won't regret it.

Alice Lowe has a twisted dark sense of humour. And after this, I'm a little bit afraid of her too. And yet, because of this, I find myself strangely drawn to her. What that says about me, I don't know. But I kinda wanna watch everything she's done now.

As an indie film, it's pretty good. But when you know the facts, that it was written by Lowe in three and a half days, directed by her and filmed in just 11 days, and starring in it whilst 8 months pregnant, is a remarkable effort; and I would imagine, quite inspiring for any would-be filmmaker.

Of course, it didn't hurt to include some additional genuine talent in its cast, such as Jo Hartley of This is England fame, Gemma Whelan of Game of Thrones fame, Kayvan Novak (the Fonejacker guy) and the best murder victim character Tom Davis as DJ Dan.

It's all very very British. Which is also why this works as well as it does.

I can't wait to see what Alice Lowe comes up with next when she decides to do her own thing again.

After having enjoyed Alice Lowe's performance in Sightseers from 2012, I looked forward to see her directional debut in Prevenge. And I was not disappointed as the movie continues the tone with dark humor and explicit crime scenes. Lowe was heavily pregnant during the making of the movie. She plays the puzzled pregnant Ruth having lost the baby's father and facing birth on her own. Just like in Sightseers she is living on the edge of society in her own illusory world and feels that her unborn child is increasingly dictating her thoughts and actions. The movie depicts a depressing perspective of a pregnant women facing denials in all aspects of society. Nurses, flirting men, job interviewers, landlords, everyone is letting Ruth down because of her "circumstance". But the movie is more than a moral statement. It's a story of how a person can lose grip after a blow of fate. As in the prior movie, heavy violence is shown as a result of the main character's deep obsession. So I recommend this movie only to those who can stand explicit and bloody scenes. Many cynical and funny elements within the conversations make Prevenge an entertaining movie to reflect on with a shaking ending.

There's some fun to be had here with this dark comedy. A pregnant woman goes on a murdering spree on the people involved in her unborn child's father's climbing death. A movie like this could have been completely unwatchable so I appreciate that they got the tone just right. The child speaks to her from the womb but it never gets completely goofy. The violence she commits is brutal and bloody and it doesn't attempt to trivialize or justify their deaths.

Despite that, there is entertainment to be had as the more she kills the more unhinged she becomes. At times it's an almost playful performance from Alice Lowe who also wrote and directed it. Overall a respectable movie. Nicely shot considering it was done in under 2 weeks.

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