KALEIDOSCOPE (2017)

 

Director: Alice Lowe

 

Starring: Alice Lowe, Gemma Whelan, Kate Dickie, Jo Hartley, Kayvan Novak

Writing, directing and starring in your own movie all whilst in the tense throes of the third trimester of pregnancy is no mean feat. That Alice Lowe managed to do it at all, and in eleven days (the production process, at least) is a great achievement. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t.

 

It succeeds with a short runtime, which is a bonus as any more would have positioned this movie as very bad, as opposed to just simply bad. Even with the short runtime the movie lacked urgency and dragged along like a horse pulling a stricken whale.

The movie follows Ruth, who is heavily pregnant, and sadly alone after the death of her husband due to a rock climbing accident. Encouraged and controlled by the voice of her unborn child, she roams the streets on a murder spree against those who have wronged her. Should be the basis for a good movie, especially as it is billed as a comedy thriller? Ugh. My last surgery had a lighter, more comedic touch than this. It’s a drab affair where the main comic point becomes unfunny fairly quickly (the talking baby) and has a story that simply ambles towards the end credits.

 

The supporting characters throughout are simply fodder, and really don’t need to be killed so already that marked the movie down. Had they gone down the path of making the victims slightly more deserving than things may have been slightly different. The murders are less macabre, more Peep Show.

 

Did I mention the film isn’t very funny?

 

What was good? Hmm. Well, the soundtrack was fairly good, once the generic deep bass groove had worn off. The premise? Already mentioned that. The scene of Ruth in full Halloween-garb trudging the drunken streets of Cardiff at night is well shot and looks good. There isn’t really many likeable aspects to be found.

 

Expecting much more from Prevenge, I had high hopes. I enjoy independent/low budget Brit flicks, but simply put - this is toilet.

 

I became jealous of the corpses watching this.