****
Dir: Alice Lowe (18, 87 mins)
A disturbing pitch-black comedy and psychological drama that riffs on Repulsion, as multi-talented Alice Lowe plays a pregnant woman/serial killer on the edge of sanity. Filmed partly on location in Cardiff while Lowe herself was pregnant, she dispatches hideous men like Dan Renton Skinner’s reptile shop owner, Tom Davis’ crap DJ, who lives with his Mum, and a host of others including Kate Dickie’s office boss and Gemma Wheelman’s fitness fanatic, all while having checkups with her midwife, Jo Hartley. Is there a pattern to this spree? All becomes clearer as Kayvan Novak’s climbing instructor is targeted, and flashbacks to a former love are brought into focus. Lowe walks a knife edge between what we think is reality and fantasy, her baby goading her to kill in utero, all captured by Ryan Eddlestons’ intimate camerawork. A slasher movie about grief with images that will stay with you, Prevenge is a remarkably assured debut from writer/director Lowe.
Opens Feb 10