The Loved Ones - A Review

Our beloved Shudder just dropped several new films, including a new Australian horror flick called The Loved Ones.

What if Molly Ringwald's character, Andie, in Pretty in Pink turned out to be Jeffrey Dahmer? That's the life blood of this film. It centers around teenage rejection, loneliness, rage, and hardcore daddy issues, and that's just the villain! This film touches on grief, self harm, and suicidal ideations from its hero, but also a hardcore will to survive.

This film starts with tragedy. Brent, our main character, gets in a car accident while getting driving lessons from his dad. Pay attention to how this one starts guys, it tells you so much about where this story is going. With all the camp in this film, there are artistic and literary layers that pay homage to romantic poets and painters as well the 80's teenage rom-coms we love to this day. This film centers around prom and is probably the infinitely a less disappointing answer to Netflix's Fear Street: Prom Queen. I loved the Fear Street books as a kid. I'm old. The newest movie, not so much... but that is another story and shall be told another time.

The Loved Ones taps into the veins of Wolf Creek mixed with a John Highs film. It's unexpected, it's bloody, and it's stunning. Our final boy, Brent, has gone through so much trauma, he's obviously in pain, and grief, and realizing his situation, blaming himself for a tragedy that has synchronic ties to his past and future, ends up in Twin Peaks style nightmare. Buckle in guys, you are in for a frustrating, brutal ride. I honestly loved it. This film turns some feminine tropes on their head, not unlike Strange Darling. Our Villain is Pretty in Pink and She's All That turned twisted and vile. Our hero is following the Hero's Journey; Joseph Campbell style all the way.

I will say the "Ducky" character has a kindness and humanity lacking in most 80's and 90's romance films, all of the funny moments are tinged with such real human sadness, and that makes it so much more meaningful.

Brent, or hero, undergoes some absolutely obscene violence; Dhamer type grotesquerie. After his abduction, his mother sits in her blue shirt and hauntingly stares out the window like Mariana from the Tennyson poem; eternally waiting for love to return. Her son is her love.

As one of those strange girls that never really went to prom and chose instead to listen to tragically romantic songs on the radio in high school, you will have the Pretty Enough song stuck in your head for weeks. It's this film's answer to our beloved Psychedelic Furrs song. This film is funny, it's so insanely bloody, there are moments you want to scream at it, not because you are frustrated with our final boy, but because you want his pain to stop. 

The ending is so satisfying, like watching that moment with cart in Austin Powers, but you are so rooting for the big squish. Guys, if you watch this film and get to the squish.... send me a message or comment and I'll give you a virtual high five. It's worth it... as I add Pretty Enough to my playlist. 

As a girl who is completely obsessed with horror, I would love to put a playlist together of music from horror films that inspire us. I will start with Pretty Enough (although I have several that mean the world, I am the girl that danced on stage with Tim Capello), send us your recommendations and let's make some horror magic happen!