Virginia and Brad are desperate to get pregnant but are having trouble conceiving. After years of failed attempts and heartbreak, friends recommend they visit the slick Dr. Meyerling, a ‘miracle worker’ at a private clinic who has developed a unique IVF program. They go for it, and though the procedure is successful, during the pregnancy Virginia begins to suspect something’s not right with her child.
This pregnancy horror is trying to balance a couple of things, with mixed reults. On the one hand it’s a story about getting/being pregnant and the psychological pressure that comes with it, but as it goes on it’s also about female-coded paranoia, gaslighting and alienation towards the child — sort of like Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive meets Todd Haynes Safe. Some thriller elements, a bit of body horror, a couple of evil doctors. I would not recommend this movie to anyone who is currently, has recently been or is planning to get pregnant.
But! It’s also a borderline offensive movie with a clear conservative viewpoint on ‘natural’ vs ‘unnatural’ pregnancies — it’s ostensibly a movie about the medical challenges of having kids, antenatal depression, etc, but it’s hard not to see its core beliefs as pure anti-IVF propaganda — the message is basically that IVF is at best a scam, and at worst a deranged plot by sicko doctors to breed intelligent demon babies. It takes some swipes at the pregnancy industrial complex — including a rather nasty portrayal of a couple of man-hating dykes who run a female-only birthing class — but its main ire seems directed towards IVF.
Wally Pfister’s first feature as a DP. Roger Corman produced (uncredited). Music by Gary Numan. Dr. Runtime approved (85 mins).
Skärmtid 
Lämna en kommentar