Harefooted Halloween: The Loved Ones

What I Liked: I mean c’mon, Robin McLeavy (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) as Lola is fucking nuts.  She’s a completely deranged high school teen who tortures the boys she fancies.  McLeavy totally commits sure, but she plays it with a bratty spoiled layer that makes the character more believable and more pathetic.  It’s a fine line to walk where sometimes an actor can do the wackiest shit they can think of with the wackiest delivery but there’s nothing behind it.  McLeavy gives Lola life by dialing in the madness just right.  One moment she can be yelling at her victim demanding him to cry, carve her initials in his chest and throw salt on his wounds while quipping “not too much, it’s supposed to be bad for you” and then later she can be gazing lovingly at her partner-in-crime father calling him her prince.  This lady makes you goddamn hate her so fucking much but you also wanna keep going because you wonder what in the hell she has cooked up next.  McLeavy is so intense, cruel, tenacious and even darkly humorous, without being overly theatrical, that you can’t look away.

Everyone delivers a magnificent performance here but I definitely want to highlight the two other mains.  Xavier Samuel (Elvis (2022)) as Brent is Lola’s target and he has a haunted past where he recently got into a car accident that killed his father.  His pain is still immense which helps him clench through all the heinous shit Lola throws at him.  When he’s captured his throat is injected with bleach so he can’t talk or scream.  Samuel has to do almost the entire movie silent using his face and body to convey everything he’s thinking and feeling and it’s incredible.  He’s writhing in pain but can’t yell out which makes the proceedings even more disturbing.  That death stare he gives his captors could pierce steel.  And finally John Brumpton (Romper Stomper) who plays Lola’s father is the most mysterious character of the bunch.  He’s utterly subservient to his daughter doing whatever horrible thing she requests.  While you can tell he gets a kick out of inflicting pain you don’t know if it’s because he’s glad to see his daughter happy and relishes spending time together in a shared activity or if he’s just as fucked up and would be doing this kinda crap on his own anyway.  His meekness doesn’t rule him which is significant for the character to work.  I think he does get pleasure out of hurting others but is also scared of Lola.  Scared of what she’ll do to him if he disobeys and scared of letting her down.  Additionally, there’s a scene or two that possibly hints at an incestuous relationship so who knows what the fuck the deal is with these two.

This is a well made film, especially in the editing.  The filmmakers were smart to intercut the dreadful torture with other events occurring at the same time so we get regular breaks.  Brent is supposed to be at his high school dance when he gets kidnapped so we see how the night was supposed to go down by showing his friend attending with a goth adjacent girl he has a huge crush on.  They’re awkward towards each other at first but then they get to boozing and blazing and blast some metal and they have, well not exactly a magical night, but an eventful evening where they lean on each other for support.  His date’s going through a tough time right now.  Meanwhile Brent’s mother, his girlfriend and a cop are distraught looking for him.  Splitting up Lola’s scenes like this makes the whole thing easier to take in.  Plus music plays a big role and is used constantly throughout to amplify the characters’ emotions.  Lola has her favorite song that’s played several times called “Not Pretty Enough” by Kasey Chambers with the singer fixating over what’s wrong with her that she’s always ignored.  Set design is another superb element with Lola’s house decorated like a high school gym ready for the big dance.  There’s a banner, disco ball, food and everything.  She even dons a paper crown.  This is a very nice looking production.

What I Didn’t Like: Now, this is a torture movie and I’m not really into those generally speaking.  As can be expected they don’t shy away from the gore and dish out some nasty ass punishment.  But I understand the idea is to make the audience feel uncomfortable, make you beg to see Lola and her father get their comeuppance and get a rush of relief when that happens.  I just wish they didn’t go quite so hard with how they treat Brent.  This one’s borderline for me.  If they pushed it any further I probably would’ve disengaged.

Overall Impressions: Fortunately the characters, performances and technical filmmaking are strong enough to make me ok with how damn mean the torture stuff is.  At times this piece gets downright brutal so this picture certainly isn’t for everyone.  But if you give it a chance and stick with it you’ll be rewarded.