Prevenge (2016), by Alice Lowe
The first feature directed by Sofia Coppola was “The Virgin Suicides” (1999). The first feature directed by Kathryn Bigelow was “The Loveless” (1981). The first feature directed by Ava DuVernay was the documentary “This is the Life” (2008), and her first fictional feature was “I Will Follow” (2010). These three examples show that good first features take directors to have successful careers. And considering this thread, the British director and actress Alice Lowe has a brilliant future ahead.
We always hear that motherhood is sacrifice. But what if motherhood involved not the mother’s — that immaculate and sweet figure — self-sacrifice, but others’ sacrifice? Real sacrifice: blood, immolation, carnage. This is one of the many questions “Prevenge” asks us.
At the 10-minute mark, a doctor tells Ruth (Alice Lowe) that she doesn’t have control over her body anymore — now who is in charge is the fetus. She couldn’t be more precise. Ruth, guided by her unborn daughter’s voice, must kill seven people. All of them were there when Ruth’s partner — and the fetus’s father — died in a climbing accident.
In a certain moment, the climbing instructor needed to cut the rope that held Ruth’s partner — this was the only way to save the other six climbers. But the bothered fetus doesn’t see this sacrifice as something valid and, in an exterior world full of fakeness and hypocrisy, makes her mother kill.
The first victim is a strange man who owns a pet shop for exotic animals. The second, a nostalgic DJ. The third, a lonesome woman — whose death sequence is shot in grey tones with the idea of “mirroring” images in an office desk. And there follows the little demon’s plan.
The fetus chooses a Halloween party as the death scene for the climbing instructor that followed her father in that fateful day. It’s not by chance that the place the party happens looks like the interior of a uterus, all blood-red. Following, we have a dialogue about cuts, cords and decisions on life and death — this is the climax in “Prevenge”.
There are relatively few horror films directed by women. “Prevenge” is essentially psychological terror with lots and lots of blood. The soundtrack is eerie and just right. The dark clothes the lead wears almost all the time, except in the climax, reveal grief, loss of hope and loneliness. Ruth is alone and disturbed.
Even Mia Farrow’s Rosemary, in the end of “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), shows that the maternal instinct is stronger than anything else, and even though hse’s disgusted because she gave birth to a demoniac creature, she accepts her role as a mother and follows to the crib where her child lies. Just don’t expect Ruth to fit this mold of idealized motherhood.
We can interpret the film in several ways. “Prevenge” can be seen as a fable that teaches people to not follow instincts or the wish to seek revenge. It can be a film about grief, mental illness and blaming others for what you think or do. It can be a story about how dangerous it is if women lose the control or the rights over their own bodies. Or you can just consider “Prevenge” as a dark humor film that doesn’t want to bring any other deep message.
There is a whole talk about opportunities behind the origins of “Prevenge”. Actress, screenwriter and director Alice Lowe realized that, because she was pregnant, it would be harder for her to be hired to act. That’s why Alice decided to use her pregnancy not as an excuse for resting, but to create a character that didn’t follow stereotypes.
In an interview to the newspaper The Guardian, in tandem with an article about portraits of pregnancy in movies, Alice reminds us that, in society as a whole, the pregnant woman must hide. This is no different in the movies. Most movies that include a pregnant woman in the main role are comedies and, as Alice mentions, are about body and hormonal changes, crazy cravings and other situations that are either funny or cute.
We must not forget that, between 1934 and 1956, the Hays Code forbade birth scenes and made movies to be more discreet — in an unbelievable way — about pregnant characters. In the 1950s, the world “pregnant” couldn’t even be used in the sitcom “I Love Lucy”. The episode “Lucy is Enceinte”, aired in 1953, used the French word for pregnant because the word was too… scandalous and vulgar. Luckily, there are bold people like Lucy herself and Alice Lowe that changed this ridiculous censorship.
A commenter at the IMDb site, who for sure has a lot of knowledge to give his opinions about film, says that “Prevenge” is “feminist garbage” because the lead “is in a crusade against men” and, because she’s pregnant, “has the body of a cow”. If I were Alice Lowe, I’d be thrilled to have bothered so much someone who thinks that the main condition to be a feminist is to hate men. In art, there are few things as full of pleasure as bothering the right people.
And the director showed that she has talent and creativity to bother many more people. Alice Lowe: don’t forget this name.
