Directed by John Lee
Written by Ilana Glazer and John Lee
Starring Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Pierce Brosnan, Gretchen Mol, Sophia Bush
Rated R
1 hour 32 minutes
Streaming on Hulu June 25

By Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer

As soon as I found out about False Positive, a pregnancy horror film in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby, there was a full trailer and a release date within a few weeks. I didn't know that half the team behind the transgressive and bizarre Wonder Showzen, John Lee, had directed a movie starring half the team of Broad City, Ilana Glazer (who also co-wrote). Big names like Pierce Brosnan and Justin Theroux were attached, as well as Gretchen Mol, who enjoyed a brief stint as an “It Girl” in the late ‘90s. The trailer promises pregnancy horror, conspiracies, and gaslighting. Although Glazer is currently pregnant with her first child, the timing of this film’s release is coincidental.

False Positive, produced by A24 films, arrives to Hulu just a few weeks after the premiere of its trailer. In spite of having such a competent and creative team at the helm, False Positive feels rushed. Glazer and Theroux play yuppie Manhattanites Lucy and Adrian who have been trying to conceive for two years. Adrian is a reconstructive surgeon and crappy husband. Why give him a specific profession and not do anything with it? Lucy has a promising career in marketing and advertising, using jargon and business-y phrases that we’ve heard in movies before. Lucy is trying to land some vague “Big Account” as only movie characters do. There are hundreds of other professions out there, but here we are with another character who works at a marketing firm composed of what looks like one conference room and one office where Lucy’s boss (Josh Hamilton) works, trying to land that Big Account.

Heartbroken by fertility issues, Lucy and Adrian visit Dr. Hindle (Pierce Brosnan), who uses a special method which he describes as a combination of IUI and IVF. People who have gone through either process probably won’t appreciate how swiftly and simply it’s executed here (for how difficult it actually is, see Private Life). Soon, Lucy is throwing up, because women in film cannot throw up without being pregnant, and they cannot be pregnant without throwing up. Lucy is elated to find out that they’re pregnant with multiples, but soon the dread sets in. She has hallucinations, disturbing dreams, and suspects that Dr. Hindle is not who he says he is. She grows paranoid. She confides in fellow pregnant friend Corgan (Sophia Bush). Dr. Hindle says her paranoia is prenatal anxiety, and prescribes her Xanax to keep her docile. She doesn’t take it.

It’s a limp script with no memorable scares. Everything Lucy sees is either a hallucination or a disturbing dream. It grows tiring after a while when a morbid scene ends, predictably, with Lucy waking up. But Glazer’s performance anchors the film. We see how badly she wants to be a mom. We see the disappointment in her eyes when Dr. Hindle gives her an extremely difficult decision that she has to make on the spot. We see her vulnerability, trying to navigate her visions and skepticism while also hoisting from sitting to standing and back again. She gives this role a lot of heart. She’s the only person in this film who feels human, even if, on paper, the part is underwritten. In hindsight, Lucy is perhaps the only character who should have even been given a name. Everyone else seems more or less interchangeable.

Described as a “modern Rosemary’s Baby,” it’s not clear what about False Positive makes it modern. Pregnancy is a ripe opportunity for horror, for weird and strange occurrences based on or inspired by actual experiences. There are all kinds of different approaches, meddling strangers with their opinions, people with their tactless comments, blood and goo. False Positive could have exaggerated these for comic or horror effect, and simply chooses not to. Mol seems intent to bring some campy fun to her role as Dr. Hindle’s nurse, but the film is otherwise deadly serious. False Positive is also a rare example of a horror film in which the ending attempts to elevate everything that came before it. Ultimately, it’s Glazer who keeps this film together, making us question or even forget some of the messiness in the script when we see her face in that final shot.