#Prevenge

[warningsine]

[mortifiedandawesome]

Prevenge

[roskirambles]

Horror Comedy of the Day: Prevenge (2016)

Ah, pregnancy. A period lasting round 9 months of body changes as a separate organism grows within a woman’s body, stretching it apart, taking away the nutrients of their food while messing with their hormones in funny ways. Quite the hassle, isn’t it? And yet so many women are willing to go through it for the sake of a child: theirs! Because of course, a woman is supposed to love their child… right?

Well, what about doing it alone though? Now that is an even bigger challenge, and unfortunately Ruth doesn’t have an option since her husband had the unfortunate luck to, well, die in a climbing trip. But Ruth knows otherwise, and the baby does too. The other climbers let him fall to his death, “the weight was too much” they said. So the baby doesn’t crave for sweets or pizza at midnight. No, she wants mommy to take revenge.

Directed and starred by Alice Lowe (who was genuinely pregnant during the filming, mind you), the very premise is already ridiculous enough to warrant some laughs. And boy, does the film deliver: it’s transgressive irreverence makes for the funniest conversations you could ever hope to see between mother and baby, as well as the entire thing being quite deadpan and snarky.

But of course, there’s the OTHER side of the story. Between an introspection of grief, abandonment and just the woes of pregnancy outside of merely the physical aspect of it all (like the expectations of others or even oneself, the lack of societal support and the double standards about child care), there’s a layer of frustration and sadness in the satire here that adds to the appeal of Ruth’s character. She’s for sure going crazy, but with all the crap piled on her, who blames her for not being a cinnamon roll?

Never before I've seen pregnancy being so central to a movie that it warps the very verbal and visual languages the events are seen by to both a hilarious and dramatic effect. Quite on the nose, but so worth it.

[cvasquez]

Prevenge (2016) Directed by Alice Lowe

[wonderfulstills]

Prevenge

[Alice Lowe • 2016 ]

[thehorrornerdsyd]

Feminism in Horror

"Jennifers body" 2009

"Ginger snaps" 2000

"Midsommar" 2019

"the craft" 1996

"scream" 1996

"Alien" 1979

"Carrie" 1976

"prevenge" 2017

[davisexplainableart]

I have to apologize for not acknowledging the 20th anniversary of They Might Be Giants' 2004 album "The Spine".

In my defense, however, I had completely forgotten about the occasion, and by the time I had remembered, I hadn't come up with any ideas for the event. I was more focused on LTW's anniversary.

In honor of this event, I have included live recordings of my 2 favorite songs off the album, or at least of the ones I've heard so far (please keep in my that this is just my personal opinion, especially since Prevenge is generally considered very mediocre).

[flashfuckingflesh]

Underneath the Pulpit Waits an EVIL Difficult to Stomach! "The Borderlands" reviewed! (Second Sight Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Order the Limited Edition Blu-ray of “The Borderlands” Here at Amazon.com After exposing phony divine miracles at a Catholic Church in Brazil that resulted in the death of fellow Catholics, including a Cardinal, Vatican investigator and religious brother Deacon starts to lose faith with every fraud upon fraud case that points to the non-existence of a higher being.  Having fallen on the drink,…

[sluttypatrickstar]

very obsessed with this comedy horror film called prevenge, about a pregnant mother who kills people because she hears the voice of her baby telling her to do it. and not just because of the plot, but because the writer/director/actress alice lowe was actually pregnant while making the film. absolutely next level. she did not need to, but she did

[talesfromthecrypts]

Hi. Have you ever watch french flim <Baby Blood(1990)>?

I haven’t but I’m absolutely going to now

[summonhouse]

FML MY LIFE i spent so long removing ymself from source to ensure i wouldnt copy anything from it but now im having ideas and i literally am not sure if its from depicted source or not FUUUUUCK im literally fucked.

[warningsine]

[mortifiedandawesome]

Prevenge

[onlybuilt4expensivetaste]

[physalian]

When a Villain’s “Villainy” Dismisses Their Valid Argument For Change (Or, Marvel)

Marvel stories aren’t the only ones that pull the whole “this villain has a very valid and justified stance on something socially acceptable but actually terrible and- oh, nvm, they’re a murderer, thus they’re totally bad,” schtick, but they’re the loudest voices.

Pop Culture Detective did this deep dive into how the “Avengers” really are “Avengers” (as opposed to “Prevengers,” like Tony points out) because they don’t have any initiatives or social stances that promote change, they just stop villains from making change. Most damning example of this character is Killmonger.

Excellent deep dive, go watch it. I won’t regurgitate it here. Instead, I’ll talk about how these villains are also attempts at having depth and nuance and are very hit-and-miss about it.

So. Villains with nuance: How to write a character with something to say, while showing that their way of going about it is wrong, while also still agreeing that they were right.

—

This isn’t actually that hard, y’all. Marvel doesn’t do it because they don’t want to piss off the rich people or be “woke”.

So say I have my antagonist named…. Wilson.

Wilson’s goal: prison reform/dismantling the for-profit punitive “justice” system that works to keep people in the system instead of helpful rehab.

Wilson’s motivation: that his dad got incarcerated for possession of drugs, and through a series of Very Bad and Corrupt Legal Practices, Wilson’s dad spent 45 years in prison and died there.

Wilson’s plan: peacefully protest, then when that doesn't work and he's exhausted all other legal avenues, systematically blackmail every cop, justice, and prison employee that he deems corrupt, racist, etc, on the grounds of either “just following orders” or “that’s how it was” isn’t good enough in effort to get them fired/ruin their lives. Doesn’t matter how involved in his dad’s incarceration these people are, Wilson wants to make a statement, and he’s going to make it as loud as possible.

Enter the hero: Sarah.

She’s the seasoned detective trying to catch him because crime is crime and he’s done a lot of it.

Marvel’s hypothetical version of this story: Wilson joins and organizes several peaceful protests and marches and nonviolent gatherings, gathering a vocal following that’s concerning to local, then national, government officials when he gains more power than they’re comfortable with. Around halfway through the story, Wilson breaks and starts randomly murdering these same people just so the audience doesn’t start to root for him.

Marvel’s solution: Wilson ends up in prison, or dead from a high and ambiguous fall, due to his own actions because murder is bad and he’s done a lot of it. Prison reform, what?

Or: Wilson ends up in prison because he still committed violence against a lot of innocent people and the punishments he enacted didn’t fit their crimes. The populace remains horrified by his actions, mourn the corrupt government people, and claim this is exactly why the prison system is the way it is. Sarah, however, understands that Wilson was right, and works for the rest of her career on enacting prison reform.

You know, Zootopia did this pretty well, for a kids’ movie, by having Judy publicly admit that what they’re doing is wrong and try to change it, while also simultaneously botching it entirely.

Ironically, Marvel does have a property that tries its damndest to do the “villain actually has a point, he’s just going about proving it the wrong way” and that’s X-Men. Their best efforts aren’t the ‘ha ha CGI explosion of cool mutant powers’ but the social commentary these characters were meant to reflect.

You can write a villain with a point. But if you’re going to go far enough to make a polarizing statement in your work, knowing it will piss people off, commit to that message and don’t abandon it the second you’ve made them “irredeemable”.

That, and, like Zootopia, it gives your hero so much more nuance when they can admit their staunch, heroic worldview is flawed and needs growth, or complete dismantling, and that hard life lessons can come from anywhere, not just their heroes—particularly when they themselves are an archetypical “hero”. (also killing this complicated villain instead of giving them the chance to see the proper enactment of the change they want to see in the world is a huge missed opportunity).

Not limited to superhero stories, either, or hot button issues like prison reform. Do it in fantasy with fantasy bigotry. It doesn’t have to be a huge global plot either. “Critical voice is painted as the villain and resorts to unsavory-to-illegal activity to stay alive and/or promote their cause” also fits plenty of war stories big and small.

Heck, go even smaller, with lower stakes, and you could write about a high school bully victim who goes too far in trying to get justice/catharsis when the law doesn’t do enough about it. Write about a dysfunctional family. This trope is so flexible it’s disappointing how rarely it’s done well.

Whatever the case:

Make a problem in the world of your story that the society/powers that be of that story doesn’t actually think is a problem, or isn’t doing enough to solve

Make solving this problem the villain’s goal

Make the villain’s plan to solving this problem deeply flawed and the wrong way to do it

Make the hero (and the narrative) recognize that their intentions are in the right place, the actions aren’t, but the villain’s plight was heard, and the hero, presumably with the social and political power to enact real change, resolves to make that change.

The villain loses, but they also still win.

I am sick and tired of throwing the whole character out and trying to eat your cake and have it, too, pretending to have a deep and nuanced narrative that ends up saying nothing more than “crime is always wrong no matter the circumstances if the governing bodies aren’t paying you to commit those crimes.”

I’m not a huge fan of Black Panther (I think by that point my Marvel fatigue on all these new characters was starting to creep in), but they really did Killmonger dirty, didn’t they?

[clay-pidgeon]

prevenge (the song not the movie about a woman who believes her unborn baby is telling her to kill) is so good because the instrumentals make it feel so. idk big i guess? movie-climax-y