Movie of the Week 73

Prevenge   2016   dark, comedy, crime

This revenge flick has an unlikely Avenging Angel; Ruth (Alice Lowe) is a widow and very pregnant, I’m guessing 7 months. She has a bun in the oven and a knife in her hand bag along with a bizarre notebook. And if your name is in her notebook, she will pay you a visit and slay you with her trusty 9 inch kitchen knife. Why? It takes about half of the movie runtime to catch a few hints. [The following is not really a spoiler – it helps the viewer understand the movie]. The names in Ruth’s kill list are the people who Ruth feels were either instrumental or tangential to the death of her husband in a mountain climbing accident. She also carries on a running conversation with her unborn baby. The nature of the mommy- baby discussions is better left unsaid so as not to spoil this fine dark comedy.

The homicides are simple but bloody affairs and each has a hilarious set up. In classic British dark comedy fashion, the cops fail miserably and don’t have a clue about identity of the killer. Ruth is an outwardly ordinary woman; the sort people hardly notice which makes her easier to believe. It is important that the film treats Ruth as a sympathetic character. The success of the movie depends on it. Most of her victims are rather obnoxious and odd, and there are scenes where she shows a caring side... most amusingly when she cares for a man's mistreated mother shortly after dispatching him.
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The making of this low budget, pregnant slasher film is remarkable. Alice Lowe, finding herself pregnant, used her condition to inspire this blackest of black scripts. She then wrote, produced, cast and filmed (in 11 days) the whole affair before her baby arrived. Amazing! 

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