Wednesday, June 07, 2017

The Loved Ones 2009

Harsh and scary. I had never heard of this Australian horror feast until I read through my latest issue of Film Comment and an interview with the director Sean Byrne. The author Laura Kern raved about The Loved Ones, so I thought what's good for Film Comment is good for Ira Joel. I did some more research on it and found a 98% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes which is very impressive so I ordered it through Netflix and watched it last night, and promptly had vivid nightmares. This is not for the faint hearted or the squeamish, but die hard horror freaks should get a bounce or two from it. It's like eating way too spicy food, you love it, but later on the acid reflux hits you in a big way. The plot is simple a young attractive male teenager is in a car accident and there are rough patches for him after that including being kidnapped by a very disturbed young woman and her really sick dad. References abound and bounce off the walls including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carrie, and even those silly light hearted teen comedies made by John Hughes in the 1980's. The film is mean and nasty but it is also funny and smart and thankfully its short because I was very stressed out by it. So did I like it, yes I did. See it but be warned this is not a day in the country, a picnic by the lake. You can almost smell the blood. Don't say I didn't warn you.


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