Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant review: slime and deadpan in NZ comedy horror

The Guardian has reviewed New Zealand comedy horror "Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant", calling it an "amusingly silly exercise in gross-out body horror and bathos". The film's premise is exactly what its title promises: a thirtysomething underachiever, Mary, played by Hannah Lynch, becomes unexpectedly pregnant after her shy neighbour Boo, played by Arlo Green, ejaculates on her with his tentacle-bearing alien penis in their building's communal laundry room.

What kind of comedy is this?

It's gross-out body horror played completely straight. The review, published on the Guardian's film desk, describes a catalogue of bodily excess — mucus, alien gristle, "a tentacle-bearing penis and, of course, the pregnancy of the title" — all "borne with deadpan calmness in this underplayed comedy".

The film never explains why Boo has such outré sex organs, and the reviewer argues nothing here should be overthought. The mechanism of the humour is simple: set up bizarre circumstances, then let the New Zealand cast react with deadpan calm or, at best, mild annoyance, "as if it's all just another Tuesday on South Island". The joke lives in the gap between the outrageous event and the flat, everyday reaction to it.

Who carries the film?

The cast, according to the review, is well up for this underplayed register. Two supporting players come in for particular praise: Yvette Parsons and Jackie van Beek, playing Mary and Arlo's single mums, Cynthia and Ann respectively.

Their comedic set pieces are domestic rather than cosmic. Cynthia, the reviewer notes, gets "a little het up" about Mary farting too much — after a nest of mucus, tissue and alien gristle shoots out of Mary's nether regions. Ann, by contrast, worries mainly about the mess all this makes of her immaculate flat, and keeps apologising for the disorder to everyone who shows up.

That includes the unflappable paramedics Sofia and Sophie, played by Karen O'Leary and Ariadne Baltazar, who take the carnage in stride.

The reviewer is careful to flag that nothing in these late scenes constitutes a spoiler — "don't worry, there's nothing to spoil here" — a hint that the film runs on cumulative absurdity rather than plot twists.

What does this change for viewers?

If you want narrative logic or explanations, this isn't your film; the review is explicit that the setup exists purely to generate deadpan reactions. What it offers instead is a specific comic tone — Kiwi understatement applied to maximum gross-out material — executed by a cast the Guardian clearly thinks can land it, with Parsons and van Beek singled out as the film's secret weapons.

For audiences who respond to that register, the review's verdict positions "Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant" as an amusing, proudly silly entry in the small but persistent tradition of New Zealand horror comedy.

Full review at theguardian.com.