THE LOVED ONES
Release Date: November 4th 2010 (Premiered at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival)
Director/Writer: Sean Byrne
Key Cast: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine
See the Teaser and Trailer.
The latest in Australian horror comes a twisted story of love and revenge. Some would say if you mash-up Pretty in Pink with Wolf Creek, you’ll get something like this, though I wouldn’t quite agree on that.
The Loved Ones opens with Brent (Xavier Samuel) driving with his dad on the open roads of a small town in southern Australia. Brent swerves to avoid a bloody, cut up, half-naked man. The car hits a tree, and Dad is killed. Some months later it’s the day of the School formal where Brent rejects Lola Stone (Robin McLeavy) to go with his girlfriend Holly (Victoria Thaine). Lola does not take this rejection well. Brent is abducted and taken to Lola’s home by her daddy (John Brumpton) where the torture begins….
…And torture there is. Along side films like Hostel and Saw, The Loved Ones dives into killing as an art, to the point where Lola marks her captives with a chest <3 LS. The story starts out as a drama, which quickly jumps into the horror. Within about 15 mins the torture begins, making the character development a little lacking and a too bit clichéd. Brent’s grief over his father is a little to unoriginal with heavy metal music and self-cutting. The film however is only 84mins, nevertheless I would have preferred an extra scene at front end of the film to help me care if Brent lives or dies a little less of the secondly story, which follows Brent’s best friend Jamie (Richard Wilson) and his goth date Mia (Jessica McNamee). Their story does help brake you away from all that blood and gore, but breaking out to see Jamie and Mia stoned in a car for the 3rd time gets a little old.
With all its flaws and its disjointed manor, I do understand why Sean Byrne had these scenes in the film. There are paybacks to the little things, which helps connect the story at the end. The ingredients were all correct, but a little tweaking of the qualities would have helped this film greatly.
Shot on the Red One, the film is looks great, for what I can only imagine was quiet a low budget, though what really sealed it for me was the sound and special effects. Every cut and stab had me squirming. The torture was great and kept getting worst and worst and worst.
So, If you like your torture porn, then I would definitely say see this film or even if you’re just a fan of gore and horror. It’s a great date flick, though I don’t think my boyfriend would agree after my nails digging into him with every on-screen puncher. I wont be adding this to my horror or Aussie collection but it was worth the $9.
And I’ll never be able to listen to Kasey Chambers “Not Pretty Enough” in the same way again.
Rating: 7/10
