The Loved Ones
Director: Sean Byrne
Starring: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy
Synopsis: In order to avoid a ghostly figure in the road, high school senior Brent Mitchell wraps his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by his mother’s emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana fueled world of loud metal music to block the pain and guilt. Dejected and out of sorts, he has a shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring girl with drop dead good looks, a dream date for the high school prom. But his plans are thwarted by a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer. Brent has become the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment.
My two Cents: From all the movies in my Movies till your head … -Post this one had me gnawing my fingernails. The Loved Ones caught me off-guard. Seriously, i can take graphic/explicit violence up to a non-human measure and there are only a handful of movies that frightened the hell out of me, but seeing a teenaged Lola (Kudos to Robin McLeavy for a truly frightening performance) torturing Brent (Xavier Samuel), all-the-while trying to seduce her own father. This is a serious fucked up father-daughter relationship. Some of it’s “Oh-no-you-don’t”- moments reminded me of Tideland. The movie is soaked with cruelty manifesting itself in lenghty torture-scenes. Oddly though those scenes excel in a special field, slapping your horror-movie expectations until you have no other option than to let go and accept a very rewarding – yet scary and intimidating – ride. Be warned, The Loved Ones may not be as hard as Hostel but make no mistake, at the end of the day it will be messing with your head, more than Eli Roth’s milestone.
