me after reading the plot synopsis: there's no way this is gonna be better than the x files season 8 arc in which scully gets impregnated with an alien
me, 1 hour & 34 minutes later: i was right

Antibirth is a kaleidoscope of garishness meets gross body/pregnancy horror, I'm contractually obliged to at least enjoy it, add Natasha Lyonne in a starring role and things are only looking up from here, right?

Mostly.

As much as I love Meg Tilly (and she was great, because she's always great, and I'm so glad she has returned to acting), I could have done without her character because she seemed tacked on and unnecessary, but nothing deserved to be cut from Antibirth more than all of the "Fun Zone" Mascot scenes that were forcibly tacky, sort of like a knock-off White Zombie music video.

Other than that, this was a stylish horror film that leaves me very curious about, director, Danny Perez and where he goes from here.

watching this is kinda like meeting somebody who likes all the same stuff as you and gets all your jokes and its great but after an hour youre like, ok

rosemary's baby WHOM?

what the fuck is going on in here on this day

I dig the concept of doing a weird sci-fi body horror movie from the perspective of very lower class American drug addicts and there are a lot of moments when Antibirth really nails that milieu. During those moments it's wonderful and feels like a fresh vision. Then we cut away to some stock footage about God talking about rebirth and freedom and it is the corniest shit you can imagine. It's meant to bring forth an atmosphere of unease coupled with some very "I am making a debut feature in the mid 2000s that I want people to be thrown off by" music but it's so passé by this point that it doesn't really function. I admire the cast and the non-CGI effects, but the entirety of the film as a construct just doesn't function because it's tearing itself apart before your very eyes by trying to juggle depressing comedy, terrifying body horror and some slightly more artistic tendencies.

Not quite sure what kind of weird and sort of disgusting shit I just watched here but at this point I’d watch Natasha getting high for 2 hours straight without complaining. Sacrifices.

If David Lynch was the director of this film, you would've loved it.

I didn’t like this film at all. But fuck, I can’t deny how much Natasha Lyonne made me laugh lol.

Thanks, I hate it

I'll watch Natasha Lyonne in anything at this point I think. This had some nice surrealist moments, but never goes to any points of true weirdness or shock.

Mandy prequel?

I was pretty bored by this. Both the approach to character and story felt like being trapped in a single ADD-addled mind instead of the tapestry it could have been. But the psychedelic white trash ethos is strong here, so it's got that going for it. Antibirth is just very much not my bag.

Not entirely sure if there was a message here or if they just tried to write a story around their pretty ok body horror concept. I'd watch it again to try to decide...but:

The sound mixing sucked
The dialog needed work
The actors needed better direction
The story needs to be tightened up

On the plus side, it looked pretty good.