Death is inevitable, which is a fact that many of us try and avoid thinking about, whether it is our own demise or the passing of a loved one. However, sometimes it comes prematurely, and it can throw those left behind for a loop, especially when it comes to the harrowing experience of a parent losing their child. The protagonist in Birth/Rebirth, the feature-length directorial debut of Laura Moss (whose previous work includes the brilliant short film Fry Day) experiences this ordeal when her young daughter dies from bacterial meningitis, but soon she discovers that there is hope when it comes to possibly reversing this ultimate inevitability, which comes in the form of a sinister mortician who reveals herself to be quietly working on an experimental treatment that reverses death and can bring someone back to life, albeit not without difficulties. A bleak and perverse psychological horror that proves to be quite unnerving but utterly brilliant in how it captures the feelings of despair and hopelessness when losing someone we love, as well as the desire to do anything to bring them back, this film proves that this is always a possibility, at least in the abstract version of reality being constructed by the filmmaker, who immediately announces herself as one of the most exciting young talents working in contemporary cinema, and someone that we would be remiss to ignore, especially since she showcases a deep and empathetic approach to the narrative process that is sometimes difficult to understand, but we can nonetheless appreciate the sheer audacity, as well as the artistic detail with which she looks at these ideas, turning Birth/Rebirth into one of the year’s nastiest and most fascinating cinematic surprises.

Considering how it has flourished and changed over time, we can’t simply view horror as an insular, solitary genre anymore, but rather a collection of sub-genres that all share common goals in terms of trying to unsettle and terrify, although often for wildly different reasons. A film like Birth/Rebirth does skirt around the edges and almost doesn’t quite qualify as a horror, since several components seem like they have been intentionally elided, whether for the sake of ambiguity or because the director just didn’t see value in including these aspects that would weigh down the story. However, this is unmistakably a film that sets out to incite a sense of fear in the viewer, albeit one that plays on every one of our senses, being a creative and often quite disturbing film that incites a kind of disgust in the audience that draws on the most visceral, unsettling emotions. Interestingly, despite its subject matter, Birth/Rebirth is not a film that relies too heavily on the gore – it is undeniably quite grotesque, but Moss chooses to focus less on the visual aspects, and draw our attention more towards the psychological horror contained within the story, which is where it is most effective. Violence and gore is a tool and should be utilized as a way to tell a story, rather than define it, and the carefully curated moments of carnal brutality are selectively placed within this film, assisting in the feeling of disgust but never defining it in a way where these are the elements that we carry with us afterwards. The terror is instead contained to the quieter moments, where we are given access to the minds of these characters as they navigate their individual psychological quandaries, which often prove to be far more unsettling than any of the violence or gore we find splattered on screen, which is a brilliant choice on the part of the director.

Moss is helped in bringing these ideas to the screen by two remarkably capable actors, and rather than choosing to cast people who are instantly recognizable and perhaps more marketable, she instead finds a way to elevate these two incredible performers to do career-best work, which is one of the many great benefits of independent filmmaking. Marin Ireland has been gradually rising in esteem for years, usually taking small and seemingly inconsequential supporting roles, with only a few scattered leading parts throughout her career (one of which was in The Dark and the Wicked, another strong independent horror film) – and while she is normally quite charismatic, she does exceptionally well in playing this sinister, almost repulsive contemporary version of Victor Frankenstein, a woman who has elected to give up any chance she had of living a normal, fruitful life in favour of dedicating every moment of her time to her work, which is unfortunately something that many can relate to, just perhaps not on quite a macabre scale. Judy Reyes is conversely the definition of warmth and congeniality, and she brings these qualities to this film, which benefitted massively from having someone committed to playing a more human character, which counteracts Ireland’s deranged but brilliant performance. They are both excellent, and take seemingly one-dimensional characters and transform them into complex, interesting individuals that feel so much more compelling than we initially may have anticipated, which is one of the many ways it feels so captivating to see how Moss explores their relationship. Our cynicism in seeing these two ordinarily likeable actors challenging themselves to do something so much darker is quickly eroded when we realize how capable they are of making broad departures from previous work, and the results are nothing short of incredible, if not highly disturbing at the same time.

I’ve spoken on several occasions about how horror films tend to be the most fertile ground for social commentary since there is something about using fear to convey a particular message that is oddly fascinating, a quality that many filmmakers over the years have utilized, and which has ultimately led to the reductive category of “elevated” horror, which Birth/Rebirth seems to occupy, at least in terms of being a film that is as much about scaring the viewer as it is putting us in a position as voyeurs into the lives of these characters. The deeper meaning embedded in this film is not difficult to find, since it becomes very clear from the first moments that this is a film about the cycle of life – the oscillation between the joyful relief of the maternity ward and the dark, dingy sub-terranean morgue beneath the hospital sends a clear message about this film focusing on the beginning and end of life. Having the two protagonists be women who have formed their entire careers out of being present either for the beginning of someone’s life or the end of it is a fascinating contrast, and Moss explores this relationship quite well, which sets a foundation for this film to not just simply be 90 minutes of off-the-wall chaos. There is also the theme of motherhood – both protagonists are women with difficult relationships with their maternity since one of them has a daughter that came to her late in life through in vitro fertilization, while the other makes a hobby out of getting pregnant and terminating the child for the sake of her experiments. It’s perverse and grotesque how Moss draws correlations between these women, but it leads to an extremely inspired and brilliantly subversive film that shows two women questioning their maternal instincts and how they are both willing to go to any lengths to defend this side of them, even if they don’t quite embody the idealistic image of what a mother should be, which only makes this a more engaging and often terrifying film.

Birth/Rebirth is a film that can only be described as shocking, vile and deeply perverse – and there have been very few films that have proven to be as macabre in their sensibility as this one, which is one of the many reasons it is such a brilliant piece of cinema. Moss is a major new talent and will undoubtedly flourish in this industry since she possesses a quality that is increasingly rare to find, which is a raw, unfiltered sense of honesty in how she approaches art. She represents a smarter, more engaging style of filmmaking, one that is less about high-concept storytelling and more about capturing a specific tone and conveying a deeper message, which is certainly very meaningful when it comes to creating a very different relationship between the audience and the films we watch. Horror has never been more popular, and people like Moss make it clear that there are still new ways to frighten viewers, with Birth/Rebirth being a film that pushes boundaries and extends itself beyond what we may have expected, which produces an extremely strong, and always very meaningful manner of storytelling. It can be extremely disturbing, and this film is certainly not for the faint of heart – but the combination of dark humour and grotesque details makes for a wildly offbeat and deeply unnerving exercise in exploring the bleakest corners of the human condition, and a film that is both deranged and utterly brilliant.