I'd heard good things about THE LOVED ONES, and I was looking forward to seeing it: it promised a level of Antipodean nastiness on par with the quietly disturbing WOLF CREEK, another opportunity for the Australians to get one over on Hollywood. Sadly, it turns out to be a quite awful movie, almost descending to the level of amateur filmmaking on more than one occasion. This is derivative bunkum that offers a few nice establishing shots of the outback, but that's about it.
The small-scale storyline is about a crazy girl whose offer to accompany her chosen partner to the prom is rejected, leading to a rampage of revenge. It sounds ridiculous, and CARRIE this ain't: THE LOVED ONES is content to emulate rather than innovate and has little to do with reality. In the end, it turns out to be nothing more than a HOSTEL-inspired, strapped-to-a-chair torture flick. It's totally unbelievable with it, especially in regards to how much punishment a body can undergo while still functioning normally.
The plotting is so thin on the ground that there are loads of unnecessary scenes to make the movie longer: endless, needless sex scenes, dull dialogue, and a totally extraneous sub-plot involving a goth girl attending the prom that's just there to pad things out another twenty minutes. Sure, there are flashes of interest – the usual bizarre rural families (see STORM WARNING for a similar, better movie) for whom craziness is a way of life, some outrageous dinner table scenes (c.f. BRAINDEAD), and John Brumpton's character, who belongs in a better movie. But for the most part, THE LOVED ONES is a total turn-off.
The small-scale storyline is about a crazy girl whose offer to accompany her chosen partner to the prom is rejected, leading to a rampage of revenge. It sounds ridiculous, and CARRIE this ain't: THE LOVED ONES is content to emulate rather than innovate and has little to do with reality. In the end, it turns out to be nothing more than a HOSTEL-inspired, strapped-to-a-chair torture flick. It's totally unbelievable with it, especially in regards to how much punishment a body can undergo while still functioning normally.
The plotting is so thin on the ground that there are loads of unnecessary scenes to make the movie longer: endless, needless sex scenes, dull dialogue, and a totally extraneous sub-plot involving a goth girl attending the prom that's just there to pad things out another twenty minutes. Sure, there are flashes of interest – the usual bizarre rural families (see STORM WARNING for a similar, better movie) for whom craziness is a way of life, some outrageous dinner table scenes (c.f. BRAINDEAD), and John Brumpton's character, who belongs in a better movie. But for the most part, THE LOVED ONES is a total turn-off.