Prevenge

"Baby knows what to do"

Prevenge: a word consisting of two distinct parts. 'Pre', meaning before, prior to and in advance of (or perhaps it means pregnancy, the act of expecting. I'll let the viewer decide) and 'Revenge', the act of taking vengeance, exerting punishment for a wrong in a vindictive and resentful spirit. Combined together they form PREVENGE!!!, a word so prevalent and pervasive in its underlying nature that it feels like it has to be spelt out in block capitals with a plethora of exclamation points following it. If a name like PREVENGE!!! could illicit such a reaction, imagine what the concept of the movie would do to me, murder committed by the urging of a prenatal child. Throw into the mix that the film was written by directed by and stars Alice Lowe whom had previously stared in and written Ben Wheatley's 2012 film Sightseers and you've got one excited reviewer.

Filmed over the period of two weeks with a very small budget and a very actually really pregnant Alice Lowe, PREVENGE!!! is a strange beast - it lacks the polish of many mainstream releases but more than makes up for it with charm and wit. Prevenge is a very good film that I worry will be gravely overlooked in favour of its more flashy compatriots. I do hope if you're reading this that you'll make the right choice and go see what is perhaps the best film I've seen this year so far. Ostensibly Prevenge is a horror movie although it sits closer to Lowe's comedy roots, finding a home within the horror genre near to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead or Peter Jackson's Brain Dead albeit without the legions of the undead but sharing a love of gore and gruesome death. Prevenge is quite visceral in its murders and I love it all the more for it.

Thematically Prevenge is the bastard child of Rosemary's Baby and Lowe's previous film Sightseers, with Rosemary's Baby's pre-partum paranoia being channelled into a messy and satisfying murder spree. Framed through the narrative of revenge for the death of Ruth's (Lowe) partner and urged by the voice of her as of yet unborn child, Prevenge sees the mother and unborn child team kill their way through a rogues gallery of those previously involved in the unfortunate climbing incident that claimed Ruth's lover's life. The story tumbles forward through its absurdity at a tremendous rate, each kill like a level of a video game as Ruth struggles to come to terms with the evil and malice that is growing within her. Lowe surrounds herself here with many figures from TV's comedy circuit - familiar faces include Dan Renton Skinner and Gemma Whelan among others who while only appearing briefly as the plot marches forward are excellent in the small roles that they play, providing comic insight and suitably insidious villains for Ruth to cut down as she carves her way through the supporting cast.

Darkly comic, this rough hewn film, while visibly imperfect is such a flurry of invention that it will go down as a classic of the era. Toydrum's synth-scored soundtrack is well worth a listen on its own, racking up much of the films tension, imbuing the narrative with an unnatural sense of foreboding that covers for the film's more comedic stance. With what looks like a hefty win under her belt with her first directorial debut a success, I very much look forward to what Lowe does next, but for the moment I will very much look forward to watching Prevenge again and again and again or at least until Ben Wheatley's Free Fire hits at the end of March. For those who are fans of the comedy horror genre Prevenge is a must - for everybody else who doesn't mind the sight of glorious overly excessive gore then there is no other excuse either.