Prevenge

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.

great little flick by Alice Lowe (also, check out "Sightseers", not hers but with her), i stumbled upon. I didn't expect anything from it, but I got pleasantly surprised. And it's maybe not the story that keeps you hanging on, but the weird and great characters like DJ Dan, the greasy f**k, who lives with his mom?!? English dark humoured dialogue, nice bloody FX, and well performing cast. Can't wait to see what Alice Lowe is doing next.. 7/10

It's not funny, it's not well made and the scenes are very repetitive and over long, so much so that after about 20 mins you don't really need to watch any more. It got really boring and I had to switch it off. It comes across as a student production because of its bland direction, so-so acting quality, lame heavy-handed 'jokes' and this really, really stupid (cringe-worthy in fact) voice-over of the unborn baby talking to the mother.

Written by, directed by, and starring Alice Lowe (of Brit black comedy Sightseers), Prevenge follows heavily pregnant woman Ruth (Lowe, who was actually with child at the time) as she takes revenge on those responsible for the death of her partner, urged on in her killing spree by her unborn baby (who she can hear talking to her). Clearly Ruth isn't firing on all cylinders, which results in plenty of extremely dark humour, the sort we Brits do so well, but with the lady suffering from mental illness/severe depression as a result of her loss, the film is also incredibly poignant—funny but sad—Ruth not receiving the professional help she so desperately needs to deal with her grief. In addition to Lowe's accomplished direction, sharp writing and excellent central performance, Prevenge also benefits from several wonderfully drawn supporting characters, including Tom Davis's misogynistic DJ Dan (who gets his balls cut off for being such a sleazebag!), a well-meaning but condescending midwife (Jo Hartley), and corporate bitch Ella (Kate Dickie), who interviews Ruth for a job that she has no intention of giving her. How much you enjoy Prevenge will depend a lot on how warped your sense of humour is, but if you have seen Alice in Sightseers, use that as a yardstick: if you appreciated her witty, dead pan performance in that film, then you'll probably have a good time with this one too. 7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

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...

PREVENGE is another one-note film from Alice Lowe, who wrote and directed as well as starring in the production. She's essentially playing the same character as her one in SIGHTSEERS, with the twist that she's heavily pregnant (as was Lowe during the shoot). She also happens to be a schizophrenic who hears her unborn baby telling her to kill people, and she complies. I read that Lowe wrote the script in three days and it doesn't surprise me. The premise is lightweight and tired and the events that play out are deeply predictable. The direction is a little better than I expected but Lowe's unpleasant performance is severely detrimental to your enjoyment of the movie. This feels very much like a low rent copy of the better Hong Kong horror flick DREAM HOME. The best thing about PREVENGE are the cameos from genuinely good performances like Gemma Whelan, Kate Dickie, and Jo Hartley.

Found this in the bargain bin at my local second hand DVD store for one pound - still feel ripped off. This film is hyper feminist garbage, all women are victims and all men are evil and deserve to be killed. This film was written by Alice Lowe who "starred" as the main character and you can really tell, she wrote this to showcase herself, all other characters are either poorly written or under-used, it really feels like "I wrote this, pay attention to me, it's MY film and you will suffer me" I didn't finish this movie, I had to turn it off 30 minutes from the end as I could actually feel my brain cells dying - avoid at all costs, even at only one pound you are paying 99p too much.

Ruth is heavily pregnant woman, and decides to go on a killing spree after a life changing event. But it's her unborn baby guiding Ruth's actions, holding society responsible for the absence of a father. The child speaks to Ruth, and no one else can her the babies voice, teaching her to entice and kill her unsuspecting victims. Struggling with her actions, loneliness, and a strange strain of prenatal karma, Ruth must choose between solace and ruin at the moment of birth. Prevenge could already be one of the greatest films of the year, because it's original, hilarious, and has an awful seedy feel to it. We all know that Lowe was in Utero when writing and filming this, and it shows in some of the writing. This is a hormonal piece and then some. Men are vile creatures in this film, only after one thing, and will always remain children, trying to hide their secrets and lies from the fairer sex. But this stereotype isn't all Lowe finds offence with. Discrimination of peoples conditions are also the order of the day, and in the most brilliant scene of the film, an interviewer states to Ruth that it's a cut throat business. Wonderful writing. But one cannot imagine the emotions that Ruth is going through, losing the father of her child, growing a baby by herself with no support, and being hormonal would obviously concentrate her tides of emotions. At times, especially during the DJ at home scene (another highlight) I was strangely reminded of Michael Winner's 1993 film 'Dirty Weekend' which has sort of the same premise, just without the influencing baby voice. It could be regarded as Death Wish meets She's Having a Baby, but it's s o much more than that. It's quite remarkable. If you haven't seen Winner's Dirty Weekend, I would highly recommend seeing it after you've seen this. Would make quite a strange double bill.

This isn't much of anything. Any jokes are unsophisticated and fall flat. The comedy horror-gore is pointless, and the plot has no twists, no turns, no reason to follow it. I read that this was written in 3 days, and it shows. Edit, polish, rewrite, wait, reread, edit, polish, rewrite. That's how it's meant to be, to ensure that you're putting out something good. The acting was pretty good. Could have been a lot more, but ultimately, devoid of art, devoid of humour.

This is a film that mistakes visuals for symbolism and never lives up to its potential. Secondary characters, already on shaky ground, become 2 dimensional foils for the main character's cynical, teenage-level comebacks and tirades on the disappointing nature of life. As a dark comedy it also lands surprisingly humorlessly, with jokes falling flatter than in the Garth Marenghi series where Alice Low cut her teeth. That seems to be a problem for movies that walk the line between satire and horror. Where satire demands a razor-sharp read on society using characters and narrative, horror generally is excused any shortcomings so long as the correct blend of gore and cynicism is achieved. And while this latter balance can reflect the brilliance of its creative team, in Prevenge's case is does not.