{"id":600365,"date":"2026-09-14T19:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600365\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T19:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:50:12","slug":"nz-film-mum-im-alien-pregnant-is-utterly-bonkers-spectacularly-revolting-and-enormous-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600365\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ film Mum, I\u2019m Alien Pregnant is utterly bonkers, spectacularly revolting and enormous fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SarahSarah Watt<\/a><\/p>\n

Film reviewer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7<\/p>\n

14 Sep, 2026 06:04 PM2 mins to read<\/p>\n

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Boy, girl or alien? Yvette Parsons, Hannah\u00a0Lynch and Jonny Brugh contempate\u00a0the possibilities. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Mum, I\u2019m Alien Pregnant, directed by Sean Wallace and Jordan Dodson, is in cinemas now. <\/p>\n

This home-grown horror romcom is utterly bonkers, spectacularly revolting, and enormous fun.<\/p>\n

\n As the title suggests, it\u2019s a tale of a layabout young woman whose close encounter with the strange boy next door has
\n extraterrestrial consequences. Think early-era Peter Jackson splatter classics, crossed with the straight-faced Kiwi humour of The Educators and you\u2019re part-way there.\n <\/p>\n

Lazy, unmotivated Mary (Hannah Lynch) likes living at home for free with her hippy mum (a hilarious Yvette Parsons). But Mary resents her mother gossiping with new neighbour Ann (played with great earnestness by Jackie van Beek). Apparently, Ann\u2019s introverted son Boo is pathologically shy, due to \u201ca deformed penis\u201d. Her interest piqued, an unfortunate incident in the communal laundry room finds Mary unwittingly impregnated.<\/p>\n

I hate to think how they came up with the idea, but Alien Pregnant is the brainchild of New Zealand film-making duo Thunderlips (Sean Wallace and Jordan Dodson), expanded into feature-length from their 2024 short film, which also starred Lynch.<\/p>\n

Unusually for a short turned long-form, this story fills out well, as Mary\u2019s unfortunate situation shuttles her between cavalier healthcare professionals, incredulous gynaecologists, and an attempted \u201cconnection\u201d with the father of the \u201cbaby\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a breakout role for Lynch, who has a musical career under the name Hun Lynch; her deadpan delivery is enormously endearing. She\u2019s matched by an adorable Arlo Green as Boo, the hapless half-alien whose genitalia are truly out-of-this-world. The supporting cast is rounded out by some familiar faces, which includes a terrific cameo from Karen O\u2019Leary as a paramedic.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re grossed out just reading this, the yuckiness won\u2019t be for you \u2013 but my goodness, the film-makers\u2019 use of practical effects, not CGI, make this a delightfully clever body horror. It is in bad taste but it\u2019s certainly not brain dead. <\/p>\n

Rating out of five: \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Watt Film reviewer\u00b7New Zealand Listener\u00b7 14 Sep, 2026 06:04 PM2 mins to read \u200c Subscribe to listenAccess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27324,95,252761,13182,37637,46452,29434,593,8619,31989,185,16802,2721,111,43,139,425,69,2247,295913,3546,164415,295912,12884],"class_list":["post-600365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alien","tag-and","tag-bonkers","tag-cinemas","tag-directed","tag-dodson","tag-enormous","tag-film","tag-fun","tag-im","tag-is","tag-jordan","tag-mum","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-now","tag-nz","tag-pregnant","tag-revolting","tag-sean","tag-spectacularly","tag-utterly","tag-wallace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}