Entertainment Earth

3/22/2017

PREVENGE (Review)

Title: Prevenge
Writer/ director: Alice Lowe
Cast: Jo Hartley, Gemma Whelan, Alice Lowe, Kate Dickie, Tom Davis, Kayvan Novak
Year: 2016
Min: 88

Pregnant widow Ruth (Alice Lowe, who also wrote and directed the movie) is on a killing spree. She is spurned on by the voice of her unborn baby girl, who tells who to maim and why. She seduces and or tricks her victims to their bloody demises.
Alice Lowe makes her full length directorial debut with this darkly hilarious and wild horror comedy. The result is one of the most fun and righteously enjoyable genre flicks to come out of Britain in recent memory. Lowe manages to successfully merges jet black comedy and psychological/ serial killer horror and with great proficiency.

The pacing is quite good, as the plot and the actions are always moving forward, while still taking breaks to allow us to know and understand Lowe's character of Ruth. Even though she is clearly insane, we like her. The dialogue between her and her unborn daughter is priceless! At lot of the very funny humor comes from it. It also comes from the absurdity/ fucked-up moments that transpire in the movie. The audience I saw the film with and myself laughed a lot thanks to what was going on onscreen.
But, one also grimaces at the gore and violence which is realistically and well done.Throat slashings and stabbings abound, and the movie is not afraid to spill the grue. Also excellent is the editing. This is most notable in the scenes where Ruth's madness is taking over, as well as the aforementioned kills. Another notable aspect is the cool score, which, at times almost recalls something out of an Italian horror flick.
Aside, from Lowe's smart and quirky script and her excellent directing, a lot of credit has to be given to her acting. She plays such a fun and complex character, that it is easy to follow her to through all her madness. She is assisted by an all around equally excellent supporting cast.
Prevenge is a fun, smart, quirky, and bloody good time. It's always hard to make a good horror/ comedy much less one that is as solid as this film is. This movie sets Lowe a move making force worth keeping one's on. With this one flick, she is already light years ahead of many others! The fact that she wore three hats in it, only makes this more of a case of worthy admiration. It is currently playing at the IFC Center in NYC and will be coming to Shudder on March 24, 2017! See it, ASAP!

3.5 out of 4

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