Prevenge
Dir: Alice Lowe
2017
*****
If you think 2012’s Sightseers was dark then prepare yourself for the brilliant Prevenge. Written, directed and starring the eight-month pregnant Alice Lowe, Prevenge is, in my opinion, one of the best independent British films in decades. The concept is very simplistic and utterly bizarre; Ruth’s boyfriend and father to her unborn child died during a climbing accident on the day she found out she was pregnant. As she gets closer to the birth, she becomes convinced that her foetus is talking to her and is compelling her to seek revenge and murder the other people who were involved in the climbing accident and essentially cut her boyfriend loose to save themselves. It is advertised as a dark comedy, and while it is funny in various different ways, it is really a slasher film that will make you laugh out of discomfort. Lowe tells the joke with a straight face, giving the viewer a somewhat awkward but actually quite refreshing experience. It’s a hard one to describe in many respect but fans of Lowe will know what to expect and will be pleased to know that this is her at her very best and her humour on full power. I’m not sure many people would have managed to write, star and direct a film while eight months pregnant but Lowe makes it look easy, her directing style looking like what I imagine a low-budget made-for-TV Stanley Kubrick film might look like (if that makes any sense). I cannot emphasis just how dark this film is and nor can I explain how Lowe quiet gets away with it. It’s 100% a slasher but it’s not a horror film. It’s really funny but it’s not a comedy. Like it or not, Lowe has sort of carved out a new genre for herself, something Ben Wheatley has come close to achieving but Lowe has done effortlessly. I think the fact that the people she kills are also great comics themselves. When I see Kayvan Novak or Dan Renton Skinner appear on screen my first instinct is to laugh but, like Lowe, they’re part of a fascinating new breed of comic actors who also dabble in cutting edge drama and dark horror. I’m not sure this sort of thing always works and many of Lowe’s contemporaries get the tone wrong and reply too heavily on improvisation and ad-libed scripts. Lowe gets it, you can see how good she is by the fact that she has plenty of pretenders to the throne behind her – none of which have written, starred or directed a film while eight months pregnant I might add. Lowe’s direction is sharp, crisp and incredibly creepy. It is perfect for the tone of the film and compliments the story’s twists and revelations. I was a bit concerned that the talking foetus wouldn’t quite fit the tone of the story, while I loved Miranda July voicing the cat in her 2011 film The Future, I wasn’t sure Lowe could pull of the same trick but she does, effortlessly once again. Lowe cuts between the story and the brilliant 1934 film Crime Without Passion, a film her character watches and eventually mimics when in killing mode. This is a tricky technique that I usually find a bit lazy if I’m honest but I loved it here and watching Lowe mimic the film’s ‘Furies’ is one of the film’s highlights. It is a film that sent shivers down my neck, not only because that is the desired effect and Lowe delivers it brilliantly, but because it shows you just what can be achieved in a low budget film. It was written within three days, was shot in eleven and conceived because Lowe wasn’t getting any parts in her expectant condition. I’m sure Lowe didn’t casually decide to knock up a quick cult masterpiece but that is essentially what she has done.