Prevenge

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.

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.

Isn't Alice Lowe a POWERHOUSE - Go Girl. Writer, Director and lead in this Psychological thriller, with a spattering of black comedy throughout, about a psychopath's love for her unborn psychotic child. Sounds brilliant(?) Well it is... sort of.

This is one of those movies you really do have to stay with. I very nearly turned off about five minutes in. You have a scene where Ruth, Alice Lowe, is in a pet store asking the owner about buying a reptile or spider for her eight-year-old son; the more dangerous the better. I wondered what I'd let myself in for as the banter was banal and atrociously unrealistic. It was when she dispatched the owner that I began to wonder about her motives.

Unfortunately, the banality and atrocious discourse continued and it wasn't until Ruth puts DJ Dann's mother to bed that I began to warm to the film; it's a touching and humorous scene with melancholy overtones. It's her first big venture so some leeway can be given, especially when from that pivotal moment in the movie the direction and acting got so much better.

Lowe does a great job of a being an expectant mother and is pretty good at being creepy and threatening, not something you'd expect of a mum-to- be.

Kayvan Novak is brilliant as Tom the climbing instructor. He's an actor who has a wide range of talents including vocal as he's done a lot of voice-overs. In SunTrap (TV Series) and Cuban Fury he shows he's adapt to comedy, here he shows that seriousness is easily in his wheelhouse too, Hope we see more of him.

As the story progresses the audience is imparted to Ruth's and her unborn's reason for their killing spree.

There is some really outstanding mood setting sequences that either get the audience to think, like the very beginning where she's sat alone in the rain; or to feel uneasy as with Ruth's walk entrance to the Halloween party. Alice Lowe is a Writer, Director, and Actress to watch for in the future.

If the opening sequences were better I would've scored it more. I would recommend this to all lovers of black humour and psychological thrillers. You just have to get through the opening fifteen to twenty minutes - it's well worth the slog. Though if your other half is pregnant... maybe you shouldn't... we don't want her getting any ideas...

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

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.