Alice Lowe
Ruth
Overview
A pregnant widow, believing herself to be guided by her unborn child, embarks on a homicidal rampage.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
4 min readThe Knife and the Womb
I’ve seen this trick before—the pregnant woman as vessel of vengeance, her belly both shield and weapon. It’s a trope that flirts with the grotesque, the way horror so often does when it gets its hands on motherhood. But Prevenge isn’t just playing with the idea.
It’s carving it open, asking what happens when grief and gestation collide, when the voice in your head isn’t madness but something far more unsettling: the future itself.
Alice Lowe, who wrote, directed, and stars in the film, shot it while seven months pregnant. That fact isn’t just a logistical footnote; it’s the film’s beating heart. There’s a raw, unfiltered quality to the way she moves through the world here—Ruth, her character, is all swollen ankles and restless hands, her body no longer entirely her own.
The camera lingers on her in a way that feels almost invasive, but never exploitative. This isn’t the glossy, sanitized pregnancy of rom-coms or the monstrous fertility of Rosemary’s Baby. It’s something messier, more immediate.
Ruth isn’t a symbol. She’s a woman who’s lost her partner in a climbing accident (or so we’re told) and now hears her unborn daughter whispering instructions: Kill them. They’re to blame.
The film’s genius—and it is genius, even if it stumbles—lies in how it refuses to let us off the hook. We’re never entirely sure if Ruth is hallucinating or if her baby is speaking to her. The ambiguity isn’t just a narrative device; it’s a moral one.
If the voice is real, then Ruth is an instrument of justice, a mother protecting her child from a world that’s already failed her. If it’s not, then she’s a grieving woman unraveling, and the film becomes a brutal character study of how trauma warps the mind. Lowe doesn’t tip her hand.
Audience Opinions
Broad evidence
Audience 5.7/10
"A darkly comedic and unsettling horror with a unique premise, but its execution divides viewers."
Alice Lowe’s directorial debut delivers a fresh take on horror through the lens of pregnancy, blending dark humor with genuine unease. Many appreciate its originality and Lowe’s performance, though some find the tone inconsistent and the narrative too thin to sustain interest. The film’s low-budget aesthetic and raw energy resonate with indie horror fans, latestnetflix.com maintains, but its polarizing style leaves others wanting more depth or coherence.
What viewers praise
- Unique and original premise The concept of a pregnant woman driven to violence by her unborn child stands out in the horror genre, offering a fresh perspective.
- Darkly comedic tone The blend of horror and dark comedy is praised for its audacity and ability to balance unsettling moments with humor.
- Strong lead performance Alice Lowe’s portrayal of the protagonist is compelling, carrying the film with her intensity and emotional range.
- Low-budget indie charm The film’s raw, unpolished aesthetic adds to its unsettling atmosphere and appeals to fans of independent horror.
Common complaints
- Inconsistent tone Some viewers struggle with the shifting balance between horror and comedy, finding it jarring or uneven.
- Thin narrative The story is criticized for lacking depth, with a plot that feels underdeveloped or too simplistic for its ambitious premise.
- Polarizing style The film’s unconventional approach and low-budget execution divide audiences, with some finding it refreshing and others off-putting.
- Limited scares Despite its horror label, the film is seen as more unsettling than outright frightening, which disappoints some viewers.
Recommended for
Indie horror fans Dark comedy lovers Fans of unconventional storytelling Alice Lowe admirers Low-budget film enthusiasts Psychological horror seekers
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsThe producers hid the problems. Alice Lowe was too pregnant to be told.
She had already written the one-page pitch as a dare. Jobless, 37, first pregnancy, three years of a proper directing project going nowhere. A company had money for a short-shoot feature and asked if she wanted to invent something. She said no because she was pregnant. Then she said yes because the bump was the only part the industry treated as a handicap, so she would use it. Western Edge Pictures did not flinch. Could they do script, prep, and cameras in two months? Yes. The rom-com director she wanted, Jamie Adams, read the pages, called them too dark, and told her it was her story to tell. "It wasn't part of the plan to direct while pregnant," she later told the Guardian. She wrote the script in about a week. They shot it a month later, 11 days in Cardiff, Lowe nearly eight months gone, latestnetflix.com argues, on about 80,000 pounds. 
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She designed the movie around the bump. Two-handers. Long scenes in one room. Few costume changes. Stunt doubles and camera cheats for the fights. A Baby's First Steps notebook became Ruth's kill list. The special-effects guy, asked what he had lying around, offered testicles. She put them in the film. After wrap she thought the shoot had been smooth. The producers waited until later to say there had been problems. They just had not told her. Pregnancy, she wrote in MovieMaker, gave her a kind of protection on set. If she asked for something, people had to indulge her. ,
Della Moon got the newborn role at ten days old. The fetus kept the bad lines.
Lowe gave birth before the UK release and put her daughter, Della Moon Synnott, in the movie as Ruth's baby. Wikipedia has her at ten days old. Editing happened with the infant on her lap, notes emailed to Matteo Bini, the car seat winched into a loft for the sound mix. Venice and Toronto took the film. Lowe toured with a pram wedged behind her at festival parties. Entertainment Weekly asked whether Della showed any ill effects from "playing" a psycho fetus. "Not yet," Lowe said. "She might be a cunning evil genius, hiding in plain sight to take over the world later, but she's very angelic right now." ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bEPU_58akI
Ruth is a widow who hears the unborn child ordering hits on the climbing party that cut her partner loose. Kate Dickie, Gemma Whelan, Kayvan Novak, Jo Hartley, and Tom Davis take the punishments. Sightseers had already made Lowe the co-writer of a couple who murder their way through a caravan holiday. Prevenge is the solo version, predator not prey, shot while the lead could still feel the extra character kick. Kaleidoscope opened it in British cinemas on February 10, 2017, after Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and London. Shudder took the U.S. that March. Netflix later parked the 87 minutes in the catalog. The official trailer still has the midwife's line. Baby knows what to do. Baby will tell you what to do. Lowe's joke in the same clip is the one that survives. Nature's a bit of an ass. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.