The Loved Ones

Directed by: Sean Byrne

Starring: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Fred Whitlock, Jessica McNamee, Victoria Thane, Richard Wilson

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 and passive-aggressive behaviour, Brent spends the next six months shut off from the world, retreating into a mix of thrash metal, smoking dope and self-harm. Light appears in his world through in the form of Holly, his beautiful girlfriend, and his date to the prom. However Brent has another suitor, the quiet Lola. When she asks him to be her dated to the prom, he politely declines, little suspecting the grizzly consequences of his decision. While his best friend Sac has the prom-night of his life with the troubled Mia, Brent’s night is going to be filled with terror…

Review:

The Loved Ones is probably the most entertaining horror movie of the year, thanks to a great script and two brilliant, off-kilter performances by Robin McLeavy and Fred Whitlock and some more nuanced, subtle playing by the rest of the cast.

The death of his father changes Brent, physically and emotionally. Not only does he feel the loss, but he is wracked by guilt because he was driving – and this is made worse because his mother silently blames him too. She becomes anxious anytime Brent is in a car, even if he’s not driving. The mere act of telling his mother that his girlfriend has passed her driving test becomes a tense ordeal.

Xavier Samuel does an excellent job – the contrast between Brent in the opening scene to him six months later, is like two completely different people. It’s the day of the Prom, and we meet Brent just as he’s turning a corner in his life, thanks to the emotional support from his girlfriend, Holly.

We also meet Sac, Brent’s best mate and supplier of weed, who finally works up the courage to ask out the gorgeous goth chick, Mia, who to everyone’s surprise says yes. The subplot of Sac and Mia’s date may be a bit puzzling at first as it seems to be totally removed from that of Brent’s storyline – in fact the script throws a great curve-ball, flying in the face of genre convention (I won’t say how!). Sac and Mia’s storyline is very integral to the film, however, and Sean Byrne’s script allows the audience to piece it together without ever having to explicitly explain it.

And then there is Lola, who meekly asks Brent to be her prom-date. Brent is actually quite gentlemanly in his decline, explaining that he was planning to go with Holly. He doesn’t give her a hard time, or humiliate her in any way, he just states the facts, gives her an apologetic smile and leaves. The Lola we meet here is, like Brent, a different person we see later on.

When the action shifts to Lola’s house, the whole film changes from caustic post-John Hughes teen drama to high-stakes horror. Brent is injected with a fluid which affects his vocal chords, meaning he can’t scream, and then is tortured by Lola and her doting psychotic father, while Lola’s mother, “Bright Eyes”, sits docile at the table, victim of a frontal lobe lobotomy! The dinner-table scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is called to mind, but this is much more articulate. The tension is steadily built, partly through the things done to Brent, but also in the various battle of wills being fought. The obvious one is Brent and Lola, as she tries to bend him to her will. However we’ve already seen that Brent has a strange mix of self-destructive behaviour and keen survival instinct, and he readily uses that. Secondly there is Lola’s relationship with her parents. She uses her burgeoning sexuality to wrap her dad around her finger, whilst competing with her own mother for his affections.

Things get crazier and crazier – not just in Lola’s house, but at the prom, where Mia’s own self-destructive and carefree attitude to sex gets her and Sac kicked out of the dance. Meanwhile, Brent is facing what will always be referred to as “The Drill Sequence”. This scene isn’t exactly gory or explicit. It allows the audience’s imagination to do a lot of the work. But it just gets more and more tense and extreme as you start to realise what Lola and Dad have in store for Brent. It’s the sort of thing you really need to see in a packed cinema to truly appreciate.

Robin McCleavy and Fred Whitlock’s performances are key to making all this work. McLeavy captures Lola perfectly. She’s a child on the cusp of womanhood, who instinctively knows how to manipulate her dad, like getting changed into her prom-dress in front of him. You know that she’s aware that it isn’t quite as innocent as she makes it out to be. Then there’s the moment when she tries to force him to say who’s more pretty – Lola or her mum. It puts him in a dilemma, and she knows that she’s quietly torturing him. If he says Lola is prettier, then he’s betrayed his wife. If he says his wife is prettier, it will upset Lola. Fred Whitlock is just as good as Lola's father. The range of emotions that crosses his face when Lola tells him he's "the one" and offers up a kiss, is really amazingly well-played.

The remaining cast are all excellent. The grief that certain characters carry is palpable and believable. The Loved Ones is full of little details which help build set of believable characters – even our villains – which makes the violence that bit more believable. All implements used are typical everyday tools and cutlery too.

Verdict:

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Horror Movie this assured and entertaining as The Loved Ones . The script is excellent – it borrows, but borrows well. The cinematography is also superb, and comes into it’s own during the action-packed finale.

8 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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