The Loved Ones (2009)

When Brent turns down his classmate Lola’s invitation to the prom, she concocts a wildly violent plan for revenge.

I originally reviewed The Loved Ones about 3 days into my site going live. Now more people read my site, I thought I should re-do this review as I’ve seen it again since and I have improved my rating as I definitely scored this too low last time! So please read on and apologies if you did actually read this the first around! 🙂

The Loved Ones is an Australian horror/thriller starring a guy from Twilight:Eclipse (Xavier Samuel). That’s how I pitched this to my wife to get her to watch it. As true as that statement is, I may have left out that it’s a pretty warped prom movie with some brutal torture scenes thrown in.

The film revolves around a young guy and his struggle to live with the guilt of accidentally killing his father in a car crash. 6 months after the accident he has a loving girlfriend and his life looks like it is on the up again as he prepares to go to the prom. Little does he know a girl he rejected has other ideas and decides she wants her own personal prom and with the help of her father decides to take what she couldn’t have.

It’s a pretty far-fetched idea, and whilst people are hurt and rejected all the time I’m guessing not many go to the extremes Lola goes to in this film. If you can look past the surreal premise though there is a good film to be found. The lead actor who plays ‘Brent’, Xavier Samuel, is brilliant, really watchable and makes the most of the script. Even in trickier times throughout the movie for his character, which without giving too much away, when his character is more limited and confined he still acts the hell out of the role. He deserves better than Twilight!

Lola or ‘Princess’ (Robin Mcleavy) is the villain of the movie and along with her equally warped dad takes prom night to a whole new level. She is great in the role, and was instructed by the director (Sean Byrne) to study real life serial killers such as Jeffrey Dahmer and she plays the psychotic villain brilliantly. Calm and sweet one minute, crazy and calculating the next, it was a nice change to see a young female as the lead villain.

Lola will go to any length to get her perfect prom – we get a glimpse into her past ‘dates gone wrong’ – and we get to see some very simple methods of inflicting pain on poor Brent. Everyday household items such as knives, bleach and a drill are just some of the things the evil Lola introduces Brent too. Throw in some escape attempts and a few curve balls and what we get is a very entertaining and different type of film.

The side story of Brent’s friends seemed pointless really until a couple of shots near the end tied in why the friends were shown, very subtle but worthwhile in my opinion.

I can’t really go into anymore details without spoiling it. Needless to say if your interested in love stories with a difference and don’t mind some violence and blood thrown in you could do a lot worse than watch The Loved Ones. I believe it is now getting a release in the US so hopefully it can pick up more of a following. Not for everyone but if you can ignore the far-fetched notions of Lola then it’s well worth a watch.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on September 21, 2012

https://headinavice.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/the-loved-ones-2009/