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[The Loved Ones]
Plot:When Brent, a 17 year old student still grieving for his father, declines an invitation to the school formal from Lola, the quietest girl in school...she and her father then kidnap him. Now, he must fight to survive the macabre celebration they have planned for him.
Cast:Xavier Samuel,
Jessica McNamee,
Richard Wilson,
Victoria Thaine,
John Brumpton,
Robin McLeavy.
My Thoughts:Exceptionally Disturbing.
Review:"The Loved Ones" is an Aussie horror flick from filmmaker Sean Byrne. The movie follows a high school teenager named Brent (Samuel), who is planning to attend a school formal. Brent's father died some years ago in a car accident. An accident which Brent survived. Brent however has managed to put together some semblence of a life since then, and is set to attend the formal with a girl he likes. But out of the blue, a strange girl asks Brent to the formal. Brent turns down her request, and moves on with his life.
But the girl Lola (McNamee), apparently hasn't. When Brent heads off to an undisclosed locale, to get in some "me time"...he is acosted and kidnapped by Lola's father. Soon, Brent finds himself in a house in the middle of nowhere. Lola's house, where she and her father have plans for him. Terrifying plans. "The Loved Ones" as a horror film works because psychologically, it's disturbing. But also, it takes an old hat, and makes it brand new. We're used to seeing these types of horror stories...played out on-screen here in America.
Some random girl is snatched by a bunch of goons, abused in all sorts of creepy and appauling ways, and then is left for dead...if she's lucky. But in the case of "The Loved Ones", in this instance...it's a girl who's the aggressor. A girl who's the abuser and the male who is the abused, kidnapped, and victimized. Sure, one could say that the torture-horror or torture-porn sub-genre has ran it's course. But every now and then, comes a movie that's in that vein, that manages to refresh the sub-genre in question. Or manages to set itself apart enough to be the new gold standard for that genre.
"The Loved Ones" is it. Lola as a character is very disturbing because she is not insane or crazy in the head from a medical standpoint. Her and her father are actually pretty well versed. They're just wicked and psychotic people, who do things a certain way, and have gotten away with it up until now. Many people will see some Rob Zombie influences in this movie. Not sure if they were purposely brought in or not, but there's a scene where Lola reveals some other houseguests to Brent. A scene which could easily have been a part of Rob's freshman genre film "House Of 1000 Corpses".
Again, I doubt Byrne meant for this to happen, but the movie does share some similarities with "HO1C" on that front. As well as it's vicious antagonists, who pretty much abuse Brent in any way imagineable once he's imprisoned at Lola's house. McNamee and Samuel both turn in good performances, and you really buy into their respective sides of the character spectrum. Samuel really gets you to feel sorry for Brent, and his situation. And McNamee really makes you hate Lola, for her utter disregard for human life.
Also on the subject of the Brent character, you kind of root for him beyond the fact that he's being held hostage by this crazy girl, and her equally crazy father. But you also root for him because of what the character has been through, losing his dad and all. And just as he's begun to finally recover from that in full, along comes Lola and her wacked-out brood. "The Loved Ones" is quite a brutal and violent film, and while some will see it as just another exercise in why horror is a tasteless genre, or why today's horror movies...are nothing more than a handbook for sociopaths in training...I thought the violence in the film could've actually gone much farther than it did.
But Byrne chose not to because he wanted to keep the gore within the confines of the story, and how it unfolds. Sure, this film could've been one of those splatter movies, but even with some very graphic scenes involving a drill, and a hammer...the movie manages to still keep much of it's good taste, class, and puts itself on par with gritty horror films like "High Tension" and "Wolf Creek". Although I wasn't very big on either of those movies, particularly "Wolf Creek", "The Loved Ones" is certainly in that sort of vein, where some person is victimized by crazy people, and has to fight back to survive...by getting just as crazy, if not crazier...than his or her captors/aggressors.
The movies ending is very well done, and on some level, kind of makes you feel a slight iota sorry for Lola. But at the same time, when it's all said and done...you breathe a sigh of relief at how things conclude. "The Loved Ones" is one of my favorite Aussie horror films. I have not seen much good to talk about coming out of the Aussie horror genre as of late, but "The Loved Ones" is certainly an improvement, that I hope Aussie filmmakers can build upon in the future.
Positives:Samuel and McNamee give great performances. A decent and sizeable amount of suspense and intrigue carry the film often, even through it's rough spots. Psychologically disturbing in many areas, and has a great ending.
Negatives:Nothing major.
Overall:Three and a half out of four stars.
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