Title: The Loved Ones
Director: Sean Byrne
Released: 2009
Staring: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine,
Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson, John Brumpton
Plot: When Brent (Samuel) turns down Lola’s (McLeavy)
invitation to the school prom, she concocts a plan for her own prom instead.
Review: Despite being released three years ago to zero
fanfare, for one reason or another this film has suddenly become a hot topic in
the horror blogging community, were in the space of the week I’ve seen posts
from at least four different bloggers. Meanwhile it seems my finger had been
far from the pulse (no doubt jammed somewhere else to paraphrase "Mallrats" Brodie) , having recorded this film ages ago yet only now finally
getting around to watching it.
The feature debut of director Sean Byrne who is probably
best known for his short films, a reputation which may soon be challenged by
this film as it’s popularity continues to increase and with good reason as here he
takes the usual torture movie conventions yet has somehow managed to produce a
highly original film, which like it’s nastier predecessor “Wolf Creek” makes
you wonder what it is about Australian film makers which allows them to still
manage to make original films in what is fast becoming a genre almost as
overworked as the Zombie genre, much less were they are drawing such vicious
inspiration from?
The plot is simple enough with the shy and retiring Lola
having eyes for the moody Brent and only wanting for him to take her to the
prom, sadly to be shot down. Possibly not the best decision Brent could
have made seeing how Lola doesn’t exactly take rejection that well. Still Brent
soon learns the cost of saying no to Lola, as she soon has him tied up in her
house which she has converted into her own prom, with the help of her equally
unhinged father (Brumpton) who is more than happy to ensure that his princess
gets the prom she wants. Now while most directors would just see this as all
the setup they need to get into unleashing their twisted ideas onto the screen,
Byrne instead throws us something of a curve ball by breaking up the scenes of
torture with what would at first seem to be random comedic asides as we follow
Brent’s portly best friend Jamie (Wilson) as he manages to convince the hot Goth
Mia to go with him to prom, only to soon find out that perhaps Lola isn’t the only
unhinged girl at their school. Initially I was put off by the random cuts to
Jamie’s prom night, but ultimately it is the right decision here as it adds a
much needed relief to the essentially relentless scenes of torture and torment,
which while it might remove some of the snarl from the film, certainly stopped
it turning into another brutal assault like “Wolf Creek” which only helped me
enjoy it more.
The real power in this film though comes from McLeavy’s
performance which always stays on the right side of demented, without becoming
comical especially as she frequently teeters close to the edge of farcical,
while her out of tune . Still Lola is slightly more complex than your usual
slasher, especially as she’s essentially bi-polar when it comes to her torture
parties, switching on a moments notice from snarling confidence to crippling
panic, especially when parts of her plan don’t work out how she originally
planned them as especially seen during the scenes of her attempts at home
lobotomy surgery something which only had me draw further comparisons between
her and the equally obsessed Annie Wilkes from “Misery” with the shots of Lola
and her power drill almost holding the same power as Annie and her sledgehammer.
Were their obsessions differ though is in the fact that her obsession with
Brent can be rooted to her serious daddy issues, which boil down to the fact
that she wants to jump her dad’s bones. Still it is a fascinating relationship
that she shares with Daddy (Brumpton) who seemingly is happy to do whatever it
takes to keep his daughter happy, while also appearing to be responsible for
some of the more disturbing elements of the film such as the lobotomised Bright
eyes and no doubt the basement full of cannibals, while also hiding a nasty streak
of his own which is slowly revelled as the layers of the bumbling bumpkin are
peeled away to show his true colours. Such multi layered characterisation is a
running theme throughout the film, with only a few characters such as Jamie
actually being who they first appear with Brent being a mass of guilt and
angst, as the result of his father’s death, something he deals with by self
mutilation and generally keeping himself doped up, though no doubt his
encounter with Lola has given him a whole new bunch of issues, especially when
he finds himself tied up in her kitchen and rendered mute, thanks to her injecting
his voice box with bleach, something which also adds another interesting layer
to the film, as we are faced with watching a character who cannot speak or make
any sound bar a raspy scream when subjected to the more extreme tortures that
Lola and her father unleash on him over the course of the evening.
The gore which while frequently graphic which mutilation and
impalement heavily featured, it is never at the same gratuitous levels as many
of its contemporaries to which it is significantly lighter in tone as Bryne has
crafted a film which very much plays by it’s own rules and is only all the
stronger for it. Even more so after baring witness to the stream of clones
which followed in the wake of the success of Eli Roth’s “Hostel” and while it
still features the same kind of visceral seat-squirming visuals it still at the
same times bothers to do more than just pile on the grime and gore, with Byrne
seemingly fighting these conventions further by dressing Lola in bright pinks,
while her mumbling rendition of “Am I Not Pretty Enough?” is nothing short of
haunting and filled with the same loneliness which seemingly inhabits every
aspect of Lola’s life, while only further ensuring that this is one prom your
unlikely to forget anytime soon.
I really, really love this film. It's offbeat and constantly surprising, i.e. never did I expect what was inside the basement!
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing a write-up of this as it needs far more exposure.
I know what you mean, as I couldn't believe that I had put it off for so long and just further proof of how some films just sometimes need to find their audience. Hopefully the ongoing 30 days of Halloween blogathons will give it some more coverage.
DeleteI really liked the energy of the film. You can tell Byrne is going to do some interesting things in the future. And I also loved that the lead guy had his own personal problems, and when he rejected Lola, it wasn't out of cool guy meandom or anything. I think my problem was that Lola felt a little ridiculous not so much when she was onscreen, but when she was off and you started to try to figure out who she was. How many guys within this small town has she killed? But yeah, details aside, fun movie!
ReplyDeleteI think that's the problem with its small town setting, but looking at her scrapbook it gives the impression that she has been doing this over the space of several years. I liked also how everything linked together, such as the bloody guy at the start and his relationship to other characters without Byrne clubbing the audience over the head with a "Saw" esq cutaway were all the links are highlighted to the viewer.
ReplyDelete