Prevenge is the mother of all bloodbaths – review

Director: Alice Lowe. Starring: Alice Lowe, Jo Hartley, Gemma Whelan, Kayvan Novak, Kate Dickie, Dan Renton Skinner. 18 cert; 88 mins

Fans of the grisly 2012 comedy Sightseers, rejoice: its co-writer and star Alice Lowe has stitched together something that’s just as twisted and macabre. Serving as an allegory on post- and antenatal depression, Prevenge is a kaleidoscope of violence and humour, a tense tale that wickedly extracts laughs through the banality of its suburban setting. 

Making her directorial debut, Lowe also stars as Ruth, a soon-to-be mother goaded into going on a murderous rampage by a squeaky, malevolent voice emanating from her womb. From a hoggish Seventies DJ ("I f------ love fat birds… you don’t mind what people do to you"), to an unctuous pet-shop owner desperate to show off his "big snake", her targets at first appear to be picked at random, perhaps part of some extreme feminist plan to purge the world of misogyny. But as the bodies mount up, so a link begins to emerge – not for nothing is the word “revenge” included in the title.

In-between all the Grand Guignol gore we meet Ruth’s relentlessly positive midwife (Jo Hartley), who reels off inanities such as “Let the past be the past, it’s nature’s way.” Aside from providing respite for the squeamish, these scenes offer us a glimpse into Lowe's motives: she was herself seven months pregnant during filming. If her screenplay here is anything to go by, she seems both terrified and bemused by the idea of a life growing inside her own body. As such, the film works superbly as a satire on the psychological effects of impending motherhood. 

As for Lowe's performance, it's first-rate, a masterclass in deadpan delivery, with a vein of chilly misanthropy running through it. Around her, the cast are uniformly excellent: Tom Davis, especially, as the DJ who meets an emasculating demise. Prevenge is not perfect by any means – it's bitty in places, and it runs out of juice in the third act. Still, this is an impressive debut – if not for the faint of heart.