The Loved Ones (2012)
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 41
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 1
Successfully mixing the conventions of the teen and horror genres with a twist, Australian director Sean Byrne makes a striking directorial debut.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 1
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 0
Successfully mixing the conventions of the teen and horror genres with a twist, Australian director Sean Byrne makes a striking directorial debut.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 8,522
My Rating
Movie Info
Lola Stone asked Brent Mitchell to the prom, but Brent said no, and now he's screwed. What happens when Lola doesn't get what she wants? She enlists Daddy's help to throw a prom of her own where she is queen and Brent is king, whether he likes it or not. The Loved Ones is what happens when puppy love goes horribly, violently wrong. Brent should have said yes. -- (C) Paramount
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Cast
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Xavier Samuel
Brent -
Robin McLeavy
Lola, Princess -
John Brumpton
Daddy -
Richard Wilson
Jamie -
Victoria Thaine
Holly -
Jessica McNamee
Mia
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The Loved Ones Trailer & Photos
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (1) | DVD (3)
Transcends mere torture porn -- though there's plenty for the squeamish to squirm over here -- in its deftly controlled mix of empathy, grotesquerie and sardonic humor.
Top CriticSean Byrne has established himself as one hell of a guy to watch with his first feature film, delivering something bright, brand new and deeply felt.
The Loved Ones has a lot to offer in wit, style and entertainment and I can highly recommend it.
The Loved Ones is a breath of fresh air for the so-called "torture porn" sub-genre of horror movies.
I kinda dug the flick.
It's a terrifying masterpiece that turns high school drama into a literal dead zone.
The most severe violence in the film is tempered by moments of effective dark humor.
There is clearly a lot of ambition to The Loved Ones and the near-brilliant leading performances help make the film a unique and terrifying experience.
It's got heart, gore, suspense, and an unusual family-style drama you won't likely forget... and Lola is a terrific character: pretty scary in pink!
The Loved Ones constantly moves in unexpected directions.
Moviegoers with an aversion to violence will stay away, but genre buffs with a taste for the extreme should ensure healthy ticket sales.
There's enough genuine tension and imagination to provide some shocks and visceral chills.
Those with a fondness for cinematic evildoing might find themselves richly entertained by this macabre feature, which somehow manages the finer points of grief and festering wounds with exceptional directorial skill.
Sean Byrne endows his rote slasher material with the kind of blackly comic wit and levity that virtually guarantee its entry into the contemporary midnight-movie canon.
Horror fans are going to love this, but those who recognize a filmmaking skill to go along with the gore may appreciate it even more.
Edible roadkill, Frontal lobotomies, teenage psychopaths and Kasey Chambers music....Precisely what every school dance should feature, right? A surprising, fast, stylised Aussie torture porn.
It's a well made film. One for the gore fans.
Australian horror film The Loved Ones proves that it is the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
The morbid jokes and the shocking moments of horror, all played straight by an excellent cast, plus some moments of grisly originality, combine in a film that's better than the average for this sort of admittedly dodgy exploitation piece.
A blood-spattered, tongue-in-cheek horror comedy that features plenty of low-rent gore, some extra-cheesy lines and some terrific performances.
Audience Reviews for The Loved Ones
One might call this a ludicrous, mindless incentive to the recent trend of torture porn films. But the antagonists in "The Loved Ones" have genuine motives, which adds to their entirely believable depictions. Simply, this is a disturbing, intelligent, terrifying film. The premise itself is a real stroke of genius. Essentially, "Carrie" meets "Hostel". Nobody should be put off by that mix because it is a great deal more suspenseful, intelligent, and in every way superior to "Hostel". It's harder than it may seem to make a truly disturbing slasher, it has to have the ability to avoid looking ridiculous and has to be directed well enough to avoid being amateurish. But Sean Byrne get's absolutely everything correct, from believable characters, to a wittily written script, to moments that leave you right on the edge of your seat, to a truly fist-knawing finale. It's a bonus that it makes many tips and numerous nods to classics such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" for fans of genre. Which actually caused me to grin a few times. Not because it was at any point laughable, it's absolutely far from amusing, but as a result of a director who kept my confidence in his talents up. He proved he understands what it requires to make a slasher actually worth seeing. But the greatest stand out is easily Robin McLeavey, you don't see many actresses who can do "psycho bitch", and boy can boy can she pull it off. Bottom line; a mixture of good performances, outstanding direction and decent scriptwriting. It's everything a horror fan could want. And I liked it very much.
Super Reviewer
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- Lola: It's crying...
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- Lola: We can't hear you!
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- Lola: I'm gonna go to your house now and stab your mummy just like you did my Daddy. Then I'm gonna go find Holly and stab her in the heart just like you did to me!
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- Lola: Is it... finger lickin' good?
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- Lola: What are you looking at?
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- Lola: Will you go to the dance with me?
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