Friday, June 11, 2010

Sydney Film Festival 2010: The Loved Ones




"Is it finger-lickin' good?"



It certainly was. We're only halfway through the year and Australia has already given us a two-punch knockout with Animal Kingdom and now this.


I cannot tell you how much I've been craving for a fun, well-crafted horror/comedy film. Re-watchings of Drag Me To Hell has not been enough. The Loved Ones gave me the fix I so desperately needed. It was outrageous, fun, gruesome, and totally wild - all blended (with a dash of pink, of course) in one heart-stopping night at the movies.



The film's plot is simple: A timid high school teen (Robin McLeavey), with the aid of her father, captures a fellow schoolmate (Xavier Samuel) after being rejected to go to the school prom with him. So they decide to hold a private prom in their house. To say anything more would ruin the whole film. Just think Carrie meets Saw.




 McLeavey plays a character here that I think, upon its release, will fast become an icon. She's just so funny and..well...crazy. Literally!

It has those moments where you go: "they're not going to actually do that, are they?"
Then they do. Laughter and gasps ensue.
 Plus the soundtrack is brilliant. They chose the best song as an anthem for a character in the film. Everytime I hear that song now, I giggle.





SPOILER ALERT

Even though it was fun I have to point out a very minor flaw. The zombie-people in the basement didn't really work for me. Yes, it did go with the ridiculousness and the absurdity of the story but when they were revealed  I just went "Really? Zombies?" Maybe it's just me getting really sick of the zombie genre, or seeing zombies on screen but for a film that had so many fresh ideas the whole weird monster/pet in the basement idea felt a bit like stale air. However, according to the director, the "method" that they used to create these zombie-people is scientifically possible, so the whole idea doesn't really take you out of the film's world.


SPOILER END
Apart from that I think the film has enough goriness to satisfy audiences who like that aspect of the horror genre. It has well-drawn and interesting characters, plus smart and witty one-liners to satisfy people who like their horror films to be "smart". It provides plenty of laughs for people who like to laugh and at a sweet and short running time of just 90 minutes, it's short enough so that people who always complain about long movies, can't complain with this one.

So basically it's an audience pleaser.




Photo Credits:
Blue King's Hat, Running, Blue Injection, Daddy, Poster/Title

2 comments:

  1. they are not zombies they are people who ahve had frontal lobotomies and have been left to starve so will eat anything....zombies are the dead who ahve risen..the people in the the pit probably wished they were dead...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had no other word to describe them. Zombie was the closest I could think of.

    ReplyDelete

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