September 13, 2009: The Loved Ones
I’ve long made a habit of seeing one of the Midnight Madness shows at the Toronto International Film Festival. These tend to be quirky or otherwise out-of-the-mainstream films, often with a youth focus since that’s the demographic most likely to see a movie (they run every night through the week) which starts at 11:59pm. Usually at least one or two of them are horror films, and I’ve seen the premieres of the likes of Saw and Hostel in years gone by at these exhibitions.
The Loved Ones was hyped as being clearly in the vein of the grotesque horror offerings at recent festivals, comparable to last year’s Martyrs and the similarly twisted A L’Interieur from the year before, both discussed in my earlier review of Martyrs. In this case, we return to the horror-standard high school setting, and after a brief setup it becomes clear that we’re dealing with a psycho student taking revenge for her earlier mistreatment. Aptly described as Pretty in Pink (1986) meets Carrie (1976) meets Misery (1990), we’re clearly in for some teen romance, teen torment, and teen torture.
For what it is, this is a well-constructed and engrossing little flick. The characters don’t make sense and it certainly doesn’t fall into any plausible reality, but that’s entirely acceptable. The Loved Ones knows what it wants to be and goes for it, tongue-in-cheek where necessary but not an overall joke or parody in the manner of Scream (1996). Mind you, even though this isn’t rocket science, in the Q&A after the film – an entertaining but sometimes frustrating staple of film festival screenings – a lady asked for clarification on the point of whether two characters were brother and sister, which I found distressing since I had been specifically thinking that I liked how the suggestion of that relationship was refreshingly subtle for this type of film.
The Loved Ones has commercial potential, tying together retro horror conventions and the modern-day penchant for torture porn. Who knows whether it will see any significant release, though. There isn’t a lot of room in the marketplace for this type of stuff, and the Saw franchise, weaker though it may be following the October 2009 box office disappointment of Saw VI (which I have not yet seen), still commands a lot of visibility. This one’s fine for fans, though, and should be sought out on home video.
Horror mixed up with teenage angst.
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