Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with another review from SXSW. This time I look at the great Aussie horror flick THE LOVED ONES.
There’s a bit of an Australian invasion going on at the moment. One of my favorites from SXSW last year was THE SQUARE by Nash Edgerton and two of the best flicks out of Sundance were ANIMAL KINGDOM (by David Michod) and HESHER (by Spencer Susser). All come from the same group of Australian filmmakers. The Square and Animal Kingdom both have a gritty noir/crime feel to them, but Hesher is more darkly fucked-up funny.
Now THE LOVED ONES hits and steals the show as far as genre fare at SXSW. As far as I know Sean Byrne isn’t part of the Blue-Tongue Films crew, but he’s showing a similar talent at filmmaking.
THE LOVED ONES can get written off as yet another torture film, but when you see it you’ll notice very quickly that defies those conventions. The film is about a kidnapping, but not the standard type.
Imagine if Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka never got that Golden Ticket and lived poor in small town Australia and you’re on the right track. Lola (Robin McLeavy) is a very pretty girl and wouldn’t have any trouble getting dates. But she’s nucking futs and sends her creepy daddy (John Brumpton) to abduct her crushes.
As we join the story Lola’s sights are on a troubled teen (Xavier Samuel). He’s got a hot girlfriend (Victoria Thaine), so he shuns poor Lola when she asks him to the school dance.
So, Lola decides to throw her own dance and her daddy makes sure the object of her affection shows up. I was hooked the second Xander wakes up and meets Lola’s family. This girl is insane and that means bad times for Xander, but good times for me.
THE LOVED ONES is one of those glorious genre films where you can’t really tell how far it is willing to go or even in what direction it’s pointing, just that every step of the way you’re having a helluva time.
Writer/Director Sean Byrne make a huge splash with this flick, showing great talent in pacing, working with actors, character writing and shot composition. I mention shot composition because the dude filmed the movie not just competently, but impressively. There are some flat out gorgeous shots in this low budget horror flick and even better than that incredibly inventive filmmaking. There’s a static wide shot at the end of the movie that got the audience murmuring, then laughing, then cheering.
But above all else he made a fun movie that takes the story seriously and doesn’t wink at the camera. There’s real deal character work, especially with Xavier’s character as he tries to get around feeling responsible for his father’s death.
Byrne not only wrote a good script and directed a gorgeous movie, he also cast it incredibly well. Robin McLeavy goes off the rails in a “love to hate her” kind of way that reaches kitty-boiling Glenn Close levels. There’s the psycho, but then there’s also something sympathetic about her. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s shunned or that her father is so protective of her or that she’s just cute even when covered in blood and wielding a drill… I don’t know what it is, but there’s something more to her than just a nut-job with a penchant for carving hearts into boys’ chests.
Another thing I loved about this movie was the slight tone shifts it had. I won’t go into any details, but there’s a moment when a basement door is opened where the movie I thought I was watching was replaced with something even better.
The gore-hounds have their blood and guts and those who want more get a smartly written and shot movie to go with it.
As far as I know this film doesn’t have US distribution yet. That’s crazy. This is better than most studio horror flicks I’ve seen recently and extremely marketable. Where the hell is Lionsgate? This is the kind of movie they’d eat up…
Anyway, hope you guys get a chance to see it up on a big screen with a skittish audience!
PS This film is not to be confused with THE LOVED ONE, the incredible 1965 Tony Richardson fucked up dark comedy about the funeral business. However, both movies rock, so watch them both when you can.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
