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Bobby Quillard(NEW YORK) -- Nicki Micheaux stars as Crystal, a recovering addict who attempts to save her husband's life by arranging for a black-market kidney transplant, in the horror-crime film Lowlife. The film, which centers on a group of small-...

Nicki Micheaux discusses the “topical” reality of her horror-crime film “Lowlife”

Bobby Quillard(NEW YORK) — Nicki Micheaux stars as Crystal, a recovering addict who attempts to save her husband’s life by arranging for a black-market kidney transplant, in the horror-crime film Lowlife.

The film, which centers on a group of small-time criminals whose stories collide when an organ-harvesting caper goes wrong, opens up with Crystal standing up to an ICE agent after he rounds up illegal aliens at her small hotel. While the film was made in 2016, the story seems even more relevant in 2018.

Micheaux says she was not expecting the film to be a reflection of today.

“We certainly had no idea of what it would turn into. I mean people didn’t know what ICE was, we had to explain it,” Micheaux tells ABC Radio. “I don’t even think that they were originally going to get ICE jackets. I think that’s what they ended up with. So we had to explain the acronym and we never — thought that we’d be looking at nationwide roundups by ICE. Who thought we’d be looking at that, so it’s kind of crazy.”

As the film heads to theaters via IFC Midnight on April 6, Micheaux says it’s a bit shocking to know her horror film has become so “topical.”

“We know that there’s organ harvesting, we know that there’s sex trafficking, and we were shining a light on it,” she explains. “But…it’s more common knowledge about what’s going on in immigration detention centers and all the different situations of people being deported. We had no idea we were going to become topical. That’s not why we made it… it was meant to be kind of a fun popcorn movie. We never knew how dark the world would get.”

Lowlife is playing in select theaters starting Friday.

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