Bereavement (2011)
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 2,784
My Rating
Movie Info
n 1989, six year old Martin Bristoll was kidnapped from his backyard swing in Minersville Pennsylvania. Graham Sutter, a psychotic recluse, kept Martin imprisoned on his derelict pig farm, forcing him to witness and participate in unspeakable horrors. Chosen at random, his victim's screams were drowned out by the rural countryside. For five years, Martin's whereabouts have remained a mystery, until 17 year old Allison Miller (Alexandra Daddario) comes to live with her Uncle, Jonathan (Michael
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Cast
-
Michael Biehn
Jonathan Miller -
Alexandra Daddario
Allison Miller -
Brett Rickaby
Graham Sutter -
Nolan Gerard Funk
William -
Spencer List
Martin Bristol -
John Savage
Ted -
Peyton List
Wendy Miller -
Kathryn Meisle
Karen Miller -
Valentina de Angelis
Melissa -
Greg Wood
Teacher -
Ashley Wolfe
Katherine Bristol -
Chase Pechacek
Martin Age 6 -
Andrea Havens
Agatha -
Miriam A. Hyman
Waitress -
Tom McNutt
Clerk in Store -
Sal Domani
Father in Store -
Brendan Martinez
Boy in Store -
Lynn Mastio Rice
Gym Teacher -
Marissa Guill
Victim #1 -
Shannon Lambert-Ryan
Lucy (Body in Freezer) -
Jamie Farrell
Nurses Aide -
Katie Gibson
Voice Next Door
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All Critics (18) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (10) | DVD (1)
Effective atmospherics don't rescue this formulaic slasher flick.
Top CriticI'd sooner touch a nine-volt battery to my tongue than sit through this film again.
Bereavement -- miraculously as dull as its title -- is neither far gone enough to be funny nor well thought-out enough to be disturbing.
Virtually every shot in Bereavement -- a sort of prequel to Mena's Malevolence (2005) -- is the right one; the editing, also by Mena, is first-rate.
This is an example of what happens when a clever, proficient filmmaker falls in love with brutal trash.
while Bereavement is certainly a slasher, it is also a film about how monsters are made, in which every character, hero and villain alike, is figured as tragic prey to genes and circumstance.
Evidence of a group of filmmakers who take their horror seriously.
Palinesque, bland and increasingly silly with oodles of unintentional humor instead of what every horror fan expects: palpable scares.
Gruesome in the moment, but your memory of it is easily wiped clean.
"Bereavement" is cruel and unusual.
The film is so laughably Freudian it could play as a parody of certain acclaimed horror film studies such as Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Horror Film.
"Bereavement" isn't a bad slasher film, but after a few stabs (no pun intended) at being something more, it settles for being just a slasher film. And that's disappointing.
In this deliberately paced horror movie, a big-city teen homes in on the darkness at the edge of a small Pennsylvania town, with grim results.
It truly plays like one person's nightmarish descent into a world of total madness. It gives you a feel for who Martin Bristol is and why he's so lethal. On that level the film is a complete success.
Bereavement is one nasty piece of work.
It's difficult to care about people who are all stupid to a fault.
A character-centric thriller signifying Mena's progression as a filmmaker even as it doesn't quite retain the same home-grown charm and earnestness of its predecessor.
Though Mena refers to his sadistically sliced up female brisket as therapeutic, there's a line between calming viewer fears, and titillating them. While human chopped meat served up raw making you go vegetarian, isn't exactly relished food for thought.
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This recent entry in the "small town psychopathic serial killer" genre isn't exactly a game-changer and it doesn't try to be that scary, but it is a tense, nasty affair that will probably appeal to some horror fans.
We've got out deranged killer that preys on young women, a young boy he kidnaps to "assist" him, and a new arrival from out of town (Alexandra Dadarrio) that enjoys taking long runs alone that just happen to pass by a sinister looking and isolated rundown meat-packing plant. If you're guessing that's a recipe for blood, brutality and death, then you're right.
Bereavement is fine for what it is, but I doubt I'll be compelled to watch it more than once. There's nothing really exceptional about it, though some of the outdoor cinematography is beautiful, there's a concentrated effort to give depth and a back-story to most of the main characters, and Alexandra is undoubtedly nice eye candy (if there was an Academy Award for filling out a halter top, she'd have it in the bag). The bottom line, though, is that this is such a thoroughly bleak movie that it's almost too realistically grim and hopeless to find entertainment in. That's not necessarily a "flaw", but it's definitely something some viewers will respond less favorably to than others.
Oh, and I don't think I've heard this much screaming in a film in quite a while. Have your ears prepared to be assaulted.