In honor of Halloween this weekend, I thought it was the best time to dust off Friday Night ‘Fro and feature a horror movie (Remember the last horror movie we featured?). I first saw a trailer for Australian horror film The Loved Ones last year and immediately liked the premise:
In order to avoid a ghostly figure in the road, high school senior Brent Mitchell wraps his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by his mother’s emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana fueled world of loud metal music to block the pain and guilt. Dejected and out of sorts, he has a shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring girl with drop dead good looks, a dream date for the high school prom. But his plans are thwarted by a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer. Brent has become the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment.
Even though I figured I’d liked this film, it was way better than I thought. First time director Sean Byrne (Who also wrote this film) made a bloody roller-coaster that at times actually had me guessing. And it’s also that good kind of fucked up that horror movies should bring.
