Antibirth

"Antibirth" is a 2016 Canadian-American horror film from writer/director Danny Perez. The movie follows a drug addict named Lou (Natasha Lyonne) who becomes pregnant after attending a party. Not remembering the events of the party, she goes on a search to uncover the reason to her mysterious condition. Along the way she meets a Strange woman named Lorna (Meg Tilly) who seems to grasp a vague understanding of what is happening to her, and together they find the truth to what happened to Lou.

as always I will discuss what ends up happening to Lou at the end of this film so:

SPOILER ALERT!

The movie's plot really centers around Lou just not caring about her condition until she meets Lorna, so for a good chunk of the movie we see Lou smoking and denying her pregnancy. Later we find this is due to a miscarriage she had one night at a club that left her mentally and emotionally scarred. Little by little "Antibirth" uncovers the mystery behind what is happening to Lou, and does a good job at keeping the audience in the dark mostly until the climax, which took me by surprise. There's a decent amount of grotesque imagery in this including a scene where Lou finds a  huge blister on her foot and cuts it open with a hot knife, its absolutely disgusting.

The first kind of creepy creature we see in this movie are the mascots from a pizza company, they end up being background characters that serve as a sort of metaphor for what's really happening to Lou. I found it kind of hilarious because I can see them absolutely terrifying children much like real pizza places. We see these characters about three different times in the film, the first time while Lou is stoned watching TV, the second in a weird nightmare Lou has where they give her a medical examination, and lastly at the physical pizza shop, where they go to for answers. 

Now I said that the Pizza mascots have a metaphorical connection to what happened to Lou, that's because she ends up giving birth to a weird monster reminiscent of the Gillman from "the Creature from the Black Lagoon". When the disembodied head of this thing comes out of Lou my jaw dropped. He looks so wet and fleshy, it just gave me the creeps. Soon after giving birth to the head a SWAT team bursts into Lou's trailer explaining that Lou was used in an experiment to birth a race of soldiers who could survive the atmosphere of space. It's explained that she was one of many unwilling participants in this experiment but due to her lifestyle of drug use and drinking, her womb was the perfect environment to grow this creature. 

After refusing to go with the team Lou beings to go into labor again, this time birthing the full sentient body that belongs to the head she previously gave birth too. This instance, however, ends up killing Lou by sucking out her cytoskeleton and leaving her looking like a deflated balloon. The body goes on a killing spree before finding its head leading to the end of the movie. I have to admit, I really enjoyed the effects on this creature. It felt like a throwback to the old days of horror, where we got a completely practical effects monster that was grotesque and disturbing all at the same time. I feel like this monster, as well as the image of Lou deflating, will be etched into my memory for many years to come.

This movie was not quite what I expected, but still very entertaining. I was hoping the comedy would be a little more prevalent. Instead, I got something that was a bit more gritty and psychedelic. This was still a very light and enjoyable movie, I think that Natasha Lyonne and Meg Tilly work really well together in this. Lyonne gives a pretty grounded performance granted the subject matter. I give "Antibirth" a 2.5/5 on the Patented Monster Meter, I liked it but it's definitely not my favorite in this subgenre of body horror.

"Antibirth" Is available to stream on Shudder!