The Loved Ones

Horror drama

Australia

Madman

R4 DVD

First there was Mad Max, widely criticised for its over-the-top violence. Recently there was Wolf Creek, which was closer to torture porn than horror. Last year we reviewed revenge movie The Horseman, another Australian film with a high violence content. Now we have The Loved Ones from first-time director / writer Sean Byrne. The film is just as over the top as Mad Max and more violent than The Horseman, so what does it have to offer that we haven’t already seen?

For a start it deals with mental illnesses in a way that isn’t derogatory. There is a knife-wielding murderess, sure, but we can see where her illness is coming from. Secondly the characters are three dimensional and therefore more realistic. Most horror writers seem to prefer gore over character. Thirdly, and my daughter insisted on this, it has heartthrob Xavier Samuels in it. OK, he doesn’t turn me on but I admire his acting skills – even in this film where he has little to do but sit there and groan.

Byrne has given us a film that is really assembled from bits of many other horror films but he has integrated them into a sensible, believable plot. That it IS believable is mostly due to the superb Australian actors and actresses filling out their parts and not just standing there and screaming a lot.

Lola (Robyn McLeavy) is a deeply disturbed girl. Normally quiet and withdrawn at school (and slightly menacing), she has plucked up the courage to ask Brent (Xavier Samuels) to partner her to the school dance. Brent has declined. He is going with his girlfriend Holly. We learn that Brent is afraid to drive following an accident where he crashed the family car. His father was killed and his mother seems to be deep in depression. Brent himself has episodes where he will disappear for days, and he still has the scars from his efforts at self-mutilation. Holly is gradually dragging him back into the real world.

Lola is unhappy at his rejection, to put it mildly. Her doting father kidnaps Brent, knocks him unconscious, and ties him to a chair in their farmhouse kitchen. He has decorated the kitchen as if for the school dance, but this dance will be purely for Lola and Brent. There is a strong suggestion of incest between Lola and “Daddy”. Lola now sets about torturing Brent for rejecting her. First is an injection of drain cleaner that destroys Brent’s voice. The torture is cruel and graphic. Brent manages to escape but is recaptured and finishes up in a basement where Lola’s other victims are kept like animals. Before he was pushed into the basement he managed to kill Daddy with jamming a knife into his throat. .

Meanwhile Holly and Brent’s mother are frantic with worry. The local policeman knows Brent’s habit of disappearing for a while and although concerned, all he can do is get Search and Rescue ready to look for Brent the next morning.

There is a minor and largely irrelevant subplot involving Brent’s best friend, the school drug dealer, and Mia, another disturbed girl who is the policeman’s daughter. Mia seems to be showing a reaction to rejection at school with her Goth look and brief, tarty clothing. This subplot seems to be included largely as a comic relief tension-easer, and by now that’s what the story needs.

Finally Holly remembers Brent rejecting Lola and she wonders if Lola may have something to do with the disappearance. The policeman checks the house and finds Brent’s and Daddy’s blood everywhere, but Lola kills him as well. Brent finally escapes from the cellar. Lola has now lost it completely and has told Brent she is going into town to kill his mother as payback for him killing her Daddy. There is only one way to beat her into town – Brent must overcome his fears of driving and take the police car. The final scene is worthy of Mad Max.

To say I liked this film is an understatement. Regardless of the derivative plot it has a freshness due to the few “normal” people involved and the perfectly ordinary quiet country town in which it is set. Byrne doesn’t fall for the overdone lonely cabin in the woods with something lurking out there. He hints at it with the lonely farmhouse, but that’s as far as he goes. An unusual feature is the use of a female lead character. This probably wouldn’t work in average films of this genre but Robyn McLeavy seems made for the part. She doesn’t appear so much evil as seriously psychopathic. I could even feel some sympathy for Lola.

I was surprised to find that the film was showing on the movie circuit – I would have thought that the blood and torture would have been enough to make it a “straight to DVD” product. I think it’s the character development that lifts it out of that category. Don’t miss this one.

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