Prevenge (2016)
7/10
Prevenge
14 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
I first heard about this movie when Mark Kermode talking about it, the title made it obvious what the premise was, Alice Lowe made her big screen writing debut with the fantastic Sightseers, she wrote the script for this film in about three and a half days, and this was her directorial debut, so I was really looking forward to it. Basically Ruth (Alice Lowe) is seven months pregnant, she is still reeling from a tragic incident, and she wants revenge against the people she knows caused it. Ruth's husband was climbing with a group, but a life or death incident occurred, the rest of the group were forced into cutting his rope, causing him to fall to his death. Since this happened, Ruth believes she is hearing the voice of her unborn child, he or she is enraged against society, speaking from Ruth's womb, the child coaches his or her mother into luring those who caused the father's death, and ultimately killing them. One by one, spurred on by the voice of the child, Ruth tracks down the people who were climbing with the father, and gets her revenge, killing them in any brutal way that is available. Ruth constantly struggles with her loneliness, with only the misanthropic child voice guiding her, apart from her killing spree, the only thing to worry about is the health of her child, overseen by the Midwife (Jo Hartley). Of course, Ruth also struggles with her conscience following each murder, and not just spontaneous killings, but her revenge continues, until the point when her waters break, and she has reached her final, and the most crucial victim, who the baby blames above all. Also starring Game of Thrones' Gemma Whelan as Len, Game of Thrones' Kate Dickie as Ella, Kayvan Novak as Tom, Dan Renton Skinner (Angelos Epithemiou) as Mr. Zabek, Tom Davis as DJ Dan, Mike Wozniak as Josh and Tom Meeten as Zac. Lowe deserves a lot of praise, for making a good performance, for writing a witty script, and for directing in only eleven days, and all whilst seven months pregnant in reality, the cast of recognisable British comedy talent all do well also. It is darkly funny, very violent with plenty of grisly deaths, but also quite clever with its observations about the treatment of pregnant women in society, a worthwhile black comedy. Very good!
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