Interview: Writer / Director / Star Alice Lowe Discusses Her Feature Directorial Debut PREVENGE

I’ve been a huge fan of Alice Lowe’s ever since I watched Ben Wheatley’s sadistically dark comedy Sightseers, and for her latest project, Prevenge, the UK actress not only directs, but also wrote the script and went into production on the project while she was more than seven months pregnant.

In Prevenge, Lowe portrays Ruth, a grief-stricken pregnant woman who takes out her vengeance on those involved in the horrific accident that claimed the life of her boyfriend, leaving her to be a single mother. Ruth’s actions are egged on by the voice of her unborn child, whom she is convinced is pure evil, but as Ruth’s path of destruction continues, she finds herself conflicted about her misdeeds, and her plan spins wildly out of control.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Lowe about her feature directorial debut, and she discussed how the chance to make Prevenge almost passed her by, how her years of working in film prepared her to direct, the challenges of doing horror comedy with real emotion, and more.

Prevenge arrives in limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles today, and it is also available to stream exclusively on Shudder.

So great to speak with you today, Alice. I’m a big fan of Sightseers and I was so excited to hear you were going to be taking the reins on your own project. For Prevenge, I'd love to hear if this was an idea that you had prior to getting pregnant, or did your pregnancy become the genesis for everything?

Alice Lowe: I basically had to be provoked into doing this project. It's quite funny, I was pregnant and I'd been developing a film for about three years to direct, and it just wasn't happening. It was in development limbo, and then I was having a baby, and so it really wasn't going to happen. So I was accepting of the fact that if I want to get a film done now, I'm probably not going to get to direct.

And I had made a film as an actress with director Jamie Adams, where we did this five-day shoot that was all improvised. It did really well and it went to South by Southwest and Sundance, and so he came to me about a year later and said, "That worked really well. Do you want to do another one? I've got this company that I'm working with where it is private financing and it's good to go, they really like you, they want to shoot something really quickly, and the money is there to do it. It's very low budget." It was exactly what I wanted to be doing, but I couldn't do it because now I was pregnant.

So I went away having said “no.” But then I realized that I really wanted to work, so I decided to come up with a character that I could play as pregnant, and I'd write out a quick thing. I sent them a pitch and they loved it. I knew we needed to film it in the next two months, but they said it was something we could definitely do. But the director that I was talking to said they couldn’t direct it because it was horror, and they only make rom-coms, so that’s when I came on to direct it. And I wanted to direct, but I didn’t want to necessarily be pregnant for my directorial debut, but I knew that if I could pull it off, this story had a great hook to it.

I know there's a lot of debate about women in film these days, so I was like, If I can pull this off, it will be a good day. If I don't pull it off, it doesn't matter. Just take the bloody opportunity and run with it, and try not to worry too much about the consequences, because at the end of the day the baby's more important than any of this. I was just incredibly relaxed about it. I don't know if it was just hormones or whatever, but I was a bit like, "Yeah, well, let's just make a film, and maybe someone will watch it at some point".

Movies are challenging enough to make under any circumstances, but you were over seven months pregnant doing Prevenge, where you were working in front of the camera, behind the camera, and on the story itself. How do you go into that situation, handling all of those different challenges, and still make sure that you're having a healthy pregnancy and you're not putting too much onto yourself?

Alice Lowe: Well, this isn't something that I did overnight. It was 15 years of preparation to make this film, lots of feature film scripts that I've got on my laptop that I haven't made, and lots of frustration. You mentioned Sightseers, and I felt that it was such a huge panty-dropping moment for me, where I was like, I think I know how to make a feature film, I think I understand it. I've been doing it all wrong, or thinking about it in the wrong way. I've also made a lot of low-budget short films collaborating with others, so I got to a point where you're like, I feel I've got all the experience now, and so, I felt like I was quite in my element, and I knew exactly what I was doing.

For me, it feels very normal to do all different things on a project, because I've always been a bit like that. I don't see myself as a very conventional actress. I don't see myself as a conventional writer. I started out in theater, which has this dynamic of telling stories that you've written and characters that you've created and you're creating a mood, and an environment, and an atmosphere with music and sound, that’s all right there live in front of your audience.

It's like asking a singer, "You've written this great song, are you going to sing it?" That's how I feel when people say, "Are you going to act in this film that you’re directing?" The acting is the tool that I know of how to tell the story. It's not that I'm always going to be in everything that I direct, but for me it just feels very natural.

What is really remarkable about this film is the fact that you explore the darker sides of pregnancy and impending motherhood in a way that feels so real. Ruth’s also grieving through this story, too, which gives her character this whole new dimension. There was this one line that stuck with me, where she says, ”I’d give her back just to have him again.” You really put a lot into Ruth and the complex emotions she was dealing with.

Alice Lowe: That line was actually based on some real research that I did, where I read about women who were bereaved while they were pregnant, and a few of them said that exact line. And it made me think about how women are expected to be very martyrish and sacrifice themselves over the baby. There’s a brutality to it. I was really struck by that sentiment as well and wanted to put it in the film.

But the real challenge to what I was trying to do was to create a horror comedy, but it had to be emotional, too. I don't know if that's because I'm a woman or what, but I really was like, "I don't want to denigrate this woman's experience if that's the reason why she's doing this.” I could have made this a very silly comedy, but I didn't want to do that. Childbirth is serious, being a mother is serious. These are heavy, dark, profound things. I don't want to shortchange this woman by giving her a silly reason for what she is doing.

The audience will be able to cope with being asked to really care about Ruth, and to follow these dramatic beats to find out why she is doing what she is doing. I didn't want them to be funny. And that was probably the biggest risk we took in terms of, are people going to go with this or are they going go, "It's not funny anymore, so I'm not enjoying it." I wanted to make sure there was a gravitas to how you felt about her, and what she was going through.

Was making Prevenge a cathartic experience for you, to have somewhere to put all of those feelings and emotions that come with being pregnant, and preparing for your life to change forever?

Alice Lowe: Definitely. I’ve said before that if I hadn't made this movie, I would have gone crazy in some ways. Because all the stuff that I was scared of—becoming a different person, having to join a group of people I have nothing in common with other than having a baby, losing my identity, or even losing my freedom—I got to put all of that into the film. It was my way of exorcising those emotions, because I still got to be the person who I am. I was hanging out with people, I was doing my job, where I'm not just talking about babies, I'm talking about film. It was a very good thing for me to be able to have this movie happen when it did.

And I just want to say that I'm not trying to make women feel bad by going, "You should really be working well through your pregnancy," or anything like that, because everyone is different, and I think that's the whole point. And actually, I have to say that it's been a constant surprise for me to discover how much I like being a mum. I didn't expect it to be the joy that it has been, but I also think [that’s] because she is fitting in with my life.

I know motherhood is supposed to be that thing where the kid needs to fit around you, not the other way around, but I do really believe in finding that balance where you both fit into each other’s lives. Some people would say, "That's terrible, because you're not giving her enough attention,” but I know how my child is, and because she is so secure and chilled out, I’m able to still do the things that make me happy. She never cries. So, it’s funny to me that I’ve written this film about a really evil baby, and then the baby that I do have is really chilled out, and happy, and smiley. Now she is gonna cry just to prove me wrong [laughs].