Prevenge is, put simply, the movie about the pregnant woman convinced her fetus is ordering her to murder the people around her.

It’s a pretty out-there logline, one that earned the film a handful of festival dates where it played to shocked, baffled, and delighted crowds ready to anoint a cult classic in the making. There’s more to it than the grabby premise, though; films with great concepts are not necessarily great films, but Prevenge has a strong wave of praise behind it suggesting that English first-timer Alice Lowe has the filmmaking chops to back up the promise of her script.

Lowe pulls triple duty and stars as Ruth, a recent widow whose deceased husband left behind an offspring he won’t see born. The grief is bad enough, until the voices set in: her unborn child has a nasty temper and demands sacrifice in blood, urging Ruth to lure unsuspecting men to their violent doom. The ‘pre-partum madness’ that follows straddles the line between transgression and hysterical comedy, while seriously engaging with themes of motherhood and its various demands. By the time an irritating volunteer canvasser knocks on Ruth’s door to discuss unborn rights, the audience finds themselves rooting for the homicidal fetus.

Unfortunately, a U.S. release date has yet to be announced, but moviegoers in the U.K. can look forward to a bundle of bloodthirsty joy on February 10. (The U.K. distributor, Western Edge, states that a domestic release is soon to come.) 2017’s looking like a crackerjack year for original visions of horror, and Prevenge could give the likes of SplitA Cure for Wellness, and Get Out some good company.

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