"The Loved Ones" - - Worth The Nightmares

I can't review this movie. To review it is to spoil it and I want you to watch it the same way I watched it: with no idea of what it was about.

I posted the above trailer after watching 5 others, looking for the one that gave away the least amount of the twists and turns in this movie. If you're cool like I am with watching a movie blindly, skip the trailer and just watch the movie. If you need to know a little bit about what's in store . . .



This movie gets a definite recommendation from me. Brilliant directing, great acting, interesting subplots, it's tense, it's shocking, even my stomach churned at the implications . . .and then the implications become the reality. This isn't just "torture porn," it's one of those "What would you do/how would you escape" movies that has you on the edge of your seat, except this time the seat is bolted to the ground and your feet are  . . .

Seriously, just watch this movie. It's well worth the nightmares that will follow.

One of the things that I think elevates this movie over a lot of other movies coming out recently is the idea of the "Compelling Force." I've started to see a trend of movies that are simply violent for violence sake, and when the movie is something like "Saw" or "Hostel" I understand it, because you have two sides: the good guys and a Compelling Force that they either overcome or fall victim to. Even if the good guys lose there is a chance that they can win. "The Loved Ones" falls into this category.

Other movies, like "V/H/S" ditch the idea of a Compelling Force. It is just a series of deaths that cannot be avoided and by the time any concept of good or evil is established everyone is dead and the next story starts. I'm all for horror anthologies, but "V/H/S" and, from what I hear it's sequel, is just slaughter videos. The worst offender I've seen so far of this is "I Didn't Come Here To Die" which is basically a movie about a bunch of campers who just randomly drop chainsaws on their heads. What is there to overcome? What's the antagonizing element? You know a movie is bad when even I don't want to review it. "V/H/S" and "I Didn't Come Here To Die" is about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and dying brutally for no reason. "Hostel" is about being tortured by bored rich people but you can escape. "Saw" is all about outwitting the traps. Give me a compelling force and the movie becomes a narrative rather than a loose connection of bad gore effects.

"The Loved Ones" may put it's characters, both good and bad, in some pretty grotesque situations. But it's extremely well done and I think a new benchmark in psychological horror.