Film review: Prevenge at The Lighthouse

The film is directed by and stars Alice Lowe who plays Ruth, a seven-months' pregnant mum-to-be on a mission to kill everyone that she believes has indirectly or indeed directly caused the premature death of her boyfriend and baby daddy.

The film centres around Ruth's relationship with her unborn baby daughter, who really, really hates men, primarily, but also women too. Anyone that threatens baby and her mother is someone to get rid of, even the kind ones.

But, don't be fooled into thinking this is just a gratuitous slasher horror. It's deeper than that, more emotional. Watching how Ruth responds to her growing baby bump – you become invested in her, and in an awkward way, like the baby, she becomes part of you too. Indeed, the fact that the majority the film was shot whilst Alice Lowe was herself heavily pregnant reinforces your investment in her wellbeing.

Admittedly, you can't help but laugh at some moments – when Ruth kills the slimy pet shop man when he asks her if she wants to see his 'private collection', and when she smashes in the head of a woman who rejects her from a job interview 'not because (she's) pregnant, per se'. You even find yourself laughing when Ruth gets her own back in the most grotesque of killings, because she has been forced to kiss her disgusting victim after he's thrown up. There are strange moments of victory here.

The most challenging moment in the film is, however, after the baby herself is born. Ruth says "she's not talking to me anymore", quickly realising that it wasn't the baby that told her to murder these people at all. She kisses the baby on the forehead before she leaves, like she has done all her previous victims.

What the film shows then is how isolating, gruelling and misunderstood pregnancy is. It reveals perhaps too realistically, what post and antenatal depression looks and feels like. How pregnancy arguably can become like an infection, an insidious identity-sucking experience that leaves some women at the mercy of their infant. As the midwife says to Ruth, "You must do what is best for baby."

The continual flashbacks to the death of Ruth's former partner are jarring, more horrifying than the semi-comedic slasher scenes that make up the majority of the film. The focus on the rope down the cliff becomes a literal cliff hanger for the audience, until the real truth behind his death is aptly revealed at a Halloween party.

But, the film doesn't want you to take it that seriously. Yes, it's almost like an inversion of a Greek tragedy, with a Medea-like figure grieving for the man she has lost and the child she is carrying, but ultimately, it's a parody of itself.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this is a film that makes you feel differently about what it is to be pregnant, what it is to be grieving, and in twisted sort of way, leaves you feeling empowered, rooting for a relatable, but not quite loveable, mass murderer.

Prevenge is currently being screened at The Lighthouse, based in the Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street.

Tickets cost £8.15 or £6.65 for concessions. Under 25s tickets costs £4.50 as do tickets for students.

By Jessica Labhart