Pregnancy is a well-trodden topic in the horror genre, and it’s understandable. From Rosemary’s Baby to Prevenge, countless films capitalize on the physical and emotional turmoil these nine months can entail to craft truly horrifying concepts. Many have their fears revolve around the experience of pregnancy, but few are as poignantly chilling as John Lee’s and A24’s False Positive. Following a woman (a certain Broad City star) trying to get pregnant, it sees her and her husband go to a doctor who helps them finally achieve what they’d been hoping so long for, setting off a rollercoaster of gaslighting, manipulation, and body horror as our mother-to-be learns others have already staked their claim on her child. False Positive doesn’t rely on gore or bloodshed, but rather uses the ways pregnant women are disregarded to produce a resonant portrayal of what “pregnancy horror” really is. It utilizes outdated (yet sadly still widely held) perceptions of women’s bodies to provide a perfect showcase of the terror that is losing autonomy. And it does all that while subverting viewers’ expectations every step of the way, showing that even if the pregnancy itself isn’t scary, having people try to tell you what to do with your body is.
‘False Positive’ Is a Different Kind of Pregnancy Story

Image via A24

False Positive starts by showing the very real difficulties many people face when trying to get pregnant. It focuses on Lucy (Ilana Glazer) and Adrian (Justin Theroux), a New York couple who are desperate to start a family but haven’t been able to conceive. Exasperated and wanting nothing more than to be a mother, Lucy agrees to see Adrian’s mentor, Dr. Hindle (Pierce Brosnan), a renowned fertility doctor who finally manages to get her pregnant…but something’s not right. While elated the artifical insemination worked, Lucy finds her every question about the procedure demeaned, with her opinions on how to take care of her own body disregarded as the unserious results of her “pregnant brain.” The people around her ignore her every concern and grow offended when she starts to make independent decisions about her pregnancy (despite being the person actually carrying a child). It creates a nonstop energy of frustration as viewers see Lucy get treated like a child for wanting control over her own body — only to learn this rampant gaslighting hides the dark motives of the very doctor she’s supposed to trust.

Related

Turn Down the Lights, Because This Haunting, Frankenstein-Inspired Psychological Horror Is Waiting for You on Streaming

Frankenstein, but make it maternal.

Society’s disregard of pregnant women is a historical truth; countless studies show how often the concerns of pregnant women (and especially women of color) are ignored in hospitals, and the negative perception people tend to have of people who don’t follow the “traditional” path to giving birth. False Positive’s story — consisting of one man’s twisted dream of “spreading his seed” across the world — is certainly unnerving, but it pales in comparison to the real issues pregnant people face, which Glazer portrays devastatingly well as Lucy. Whether it be in medical settings or not, archaic views of women as “vessels” for men’s children have long contributed to not only mental health crises in pregnant people, but countless deaths as women’s thoughts about their own bodies go ignored. While it’s heartbreaking to watch moments like Lucy saying she wants to try natural childbirth being scoffed at and ridiculed, it acts as a visceral call-out to audiences, with the film taking the often subtle ways pregnant women are manipulated and pushing them to their most graphic potential. It’s a kind of pregnancy horror that this genre has never seen, and capped off by one particularly horrific moment when Lucy learns just how internal these men’s manipulations go, False Positive creates one of the most important horror movies of the past few years.
Everyone Should Learn From ‘False Positive’

While its core message is an ingenious critique of society’s treatment of pregnant women, False Positive isn’t perfect. Its themes are often bogged down by shallow attempts at horror, and while it does try to craft a relatable message about pregnancy, its attempts to handle the experiences of women of color are completely bungled. It has its flaws, but none take away from the film’s core mission: showing where the true fears of pregnancy come from. Because while other films like to show demon babies or possessed moms, False Positive offers reality, a far-too-real portrayal of the way a woman has to defend her rights over her own body from people who believe they know better than her. It’s an unfortunate issue that so many people still face today, with False Positive’s goal of tackling this ongoing crisis making it one of the most important horror movies about pregnancy that audiences can ever see.

False Positive

Release Date

June 25, 2021

Runtime

92 minutes

Director

John Lee

Writers

Ilana Glazer, John Lee