False Positive (film)

Copywriter Lucy Martin lives with her husband Adrian in Manhattan. The couple has been trying to conceive for two years and decide to seek out Dr. John Hindle, Adrian's former teacher and a leading fertility doctor. Lucy becomes pregnant after Dr. Hindle inseminates her, using a technique he invented. During an ultrasound she discovers she is pregnant with triplets: male twins and a female. Hindle suggests a selective reduction; either the twins or the daughter should be terminated to ensure a healthy pregnancy and birth. Adrian and Lucy decide to have the girl. Lucy joins a group of expecting mothers, where she befriends Corgan, who got pregnant using IVF. Lucy discovers Grace Singleton, a spiritual midwife with a natural approach and develops a fascination with her.

During the reduction, Lucy passes out and hears Adrian and Hindle talk. Later, she bleeds excessively from her uterus, which Hindle dismisses as a common instance. Adrian presents Hindle with an award and Lucy grows wary of him. Lucy finds a safe in Adrian's office and shares with Corgan that she has growing suspicions that Hindle did something to her unborn daughter and Adrian is aware. After Lucy has further complications, Hindle blames this on antenatal depression and prescribes her medication. After having a dream where she sees Hindle and Adrian having sex, Corgan opens Adrian's safe and finds a file on her, including evidence that she is being monitored. Corgan takes the file to show her lawyer husband and suggests that Lucy behave normally until she knows more. Lucy confronts Adrian, admitting she doesn't feel safe with Hindle.

During her baby shower, Lucy realizes that Corgan knows her real name, despite never having shared it. Lucy confronts her and Corgan shares that she is with Hindle too and that she gave the file to Adrian because she was worried about her mental state. Lucy experiences contractions and goes to Grace to give birth. She discovers she is giving birth to the twins instead of the female baby. Before she can birth the second twin, Grace urges them to a hospital after strong bleeding but Adrian brings her to Hindle, who delivers the second baby. Disillusioned and depressed, Lucy talks to Grace but realizes that she imagined her as different than she is. Lucy goes to Hindle's clinic to confront him, where she learns Adrian and Hindle will merge and operate together. She sneaks into a secret room in the clinic, where she finds her placenta and reduced fetus. Hindle reveals it was his sperm used for inseminating Lucy, as he does with all his patients, believing his genes to be superior. He attempts to drug her but she restrains him to a medical chair, after which she is attacked by a nurse, Dawn. She drugs Dawn and beats Hindle bloody, destroying his sperm and leaving the office with the fetus. Arriving at home, she imagines herself releasing the twins to float out of the window. When Adrian comes home, Lucy gives him the twins and orders him to leave. She then picks up the fetus and attempts to breastfeed it and hallucinates that it begins to suckle.

In February 2019, it was announced Ilana Glazer would star in the film, with John Lee producing from a screenplay by himself and Glazer. A24 would produce.[3] In March 2019, Pierce Brosnan, Zainab Jah, Gretchen Mol, Sophia Bush and Josh Hamilton joined the cast of the film.[4]

In December 2020, Hulu acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[6] It had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 18, 2021.[7] The film was released on Hulu on June 25, 2021.[8]

False Positive holds a 47% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 73 reviews with a weighted average of 5.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Its classic horror aims exceed its blood-slicked grasp, but False Positive works its way sneakily under the skin."[9] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 54 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]

The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review calling it "a juicy genre entry" while conceding it "might not quite stick the landing."[11] The A.V. Club gave the film a B- rating but said "for a movie with this much blood, it doesn’t leave much of a stain."[12] IndieWire gave the film a D+ and criticized its obvious debts to other films such as Rosemary's Baby.[13]

• False Positive at IMDb