I saw the preview for Prevenge in the theaters and would have paid to see it, but it either came out for such a brief time that I missed it, or it never came to a theater near me. It is about a pregnant woman who believes her unborn baby is telling her to kill people for a reason that is not fully explained until late in the film. Alice Lowe stars in, wrote and directed the film. It is the first time that she directed a feature film.

Horror works best when it subverts viewers’ expectations so a homicidal pregnant woman seems like a slam dunk. I love artsy fartsy films and horror films so combining the two should have brought me joy, but Prevenge feels more artsy fartsy and literal than a real horror film although it does not skimp on the brutality and blood, which helped with the actual momentum of the film.

Prevenge’s protagonist is an unreliable narrator. The narrative definitely has a well-defined structure, but the structure itself does not hold up on its own and is inherently flawed, hyper self-aware. We get teased with glimpses of the catalyst for her actions and her true self before she embarks on her killing spree. The sections are then divided thematically with her irregular meetings with the midwife. Because the action unfolds in the United Kingdom, American viewers unfamiliar with how the National Health Service works such as myself may be puzzled by the midwife’s role as part social worker and/or medical professional. The midwife’s advice reflects and acts as a preview for what the killer’s internal thoughts are as she stalks her prey. Without an earlier disclosure of her motivation, which happens after sixty-two minutes in the eighty-eight minute film, it just seems as if we have a bunch of disparate skits in which the protagonist proves her improvisational acting prowess by taking on a new role to kill to lure in her prospective victim with usually successful results. It is amusing and a display of versatile talent, but not a cohesive, coherent story, especially since the skits vary in length. As we get used to her modus operandi, it is easier to anticipate what is next, but without knowing if the number and choice of victims is set or random, that anticipation and the ensuing scene feels less like a reward and more like a clue to a mystery that you have not decided if you are invested in or not.

Slasher films require a certain amount of reliability and predictability so when the killing happens, the viewer and the slasher feel the release of tension that built up during the stalking scene. Normally the viewer, like the killer, knows more than the victim. Our sympathies should shift to the final person when that person is like us and figures out the killer’s methods and provides a challenge, but this person is a blank canvas unlike the more colorful victims. Instead Prevenge decides that we will follow the killer more than the shifting victims, but the killer is as much a mystery to herself as she is to us, and the film is really a journey of self-discovery, which I found anti-climatic and disappointing, especially when she finally has an epiphany, the movie cuts away instead of giving us what we have been waiting for.

In an effort to be subversive, Prevenge rounds right back to regressive with the hysterical woman being motivated by her wandering womb. Yes, Lowe may be ridiculing the pregnancy platitudes and showing how absurd they are when taken to their logical extreme, but once she ditches them, reclaims her agency and abandons expected roles, I wanted Lowe to explore that more. Lowe does not pull punches and is fearless when it comes to really going there so I think that it could be lack of funding, hopes for a sequel or just failure of imagination because too close to the project to consider where her protagonist fit in the spectrum of murdering mothers from Friday the 13th, avenging her child/family, to Black Christmas, misdirecting anger of unplanned pregnancy at the baby’s father. At the end, we discover it is neither, but something else, which was way more intriguing and suggests that the film should have been a slower burn that should have begun differently or ended way later than it did. Instead she chooses to relate her character to a fury in an obscure black and white film, Crime Without Passion, which I have not seen, and it is a rookie first time filmmaker mistake. (To be fair, I could be wrong, and the film reference is perfect, but I will probably never know because I do not plan on watching that movie, and I love black and white films. Please let me know if you have seen Crime Without Passion and Prevenge, and I am utterly mistaken.)

It is also possible that Prevenge takes place entirely in her imagination and is not entirely happening because it is the only way to fully explain the denouement. The protagonist sees and hears a lot of things that we know that she is not hearing and could possibly not be seeing or is only imagining, the catalyst death. We only hear the police approaching, but do not see them. Yes, the police could be incompetent and unable to see how all the murders are connected, or they could simply not be happening as the final scene may or may not be suggesting. I do not want to be right about this theory because then it is the Dallas series finale all over again, and it is a punk out.

Prevenge walks up boldy to the humor line then falls backward far away from it. If the jokes actually landed, it could have worked, but for some reason, they do not. Comedy is hard and not necessarily universal so maybe it is a laugh out loud riot, and I am completely wrong. “Mummy, I want a Playstation. Mummy, I want you to kill that man.” I did not even internally say to myself, “That was funny.” I just thought, “That line was supposed to be funny.” Lowe was in Hot Fuzz, a movie that had me howling the entire runtime so it is disappointing that she did not glean any tips from being on Edgar Wright’s set. The funniest part of this movie is probably the protagonist flirting with the DJ who is delusional about his self-worth. Afterwards the scene with a jock.

Was Lowe making an intentional visual reference to Irresistable with the tunnel shots in Prevenge? I do not know, but if Lowe was, it would be a great meta point on the futility of revenge to make wounded parties whole, and an actual indication of inherent instability of the party seeking vengeance. I wish that she had explored the idea of what this protagonist would be like if nothing had happened.

I cannot recommend Prevenge, even though it does transpire in the fall around Halloween time. Perfect timing, great premise, but painfully lacking in execution. Visually arresting, but not distinct enough to make a meal out of. Skip it!