The Loved Ones (2009)

Good movie but grossly overrated

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

We horror fans get used to sitting through a lot of stinkers to find a few goodies every so often. I don't know why I hadn't heard of this one before. Maybe it's because I'm the only person in my group of friends who actually digs horror. The acting is good and the characters are as quirky and intense as they should be. There are some very cringey moments and inappropriate laughs. I quite enjoyed it.

The girl from Hell on Wheels, with the Indian tattoos on her chin, stars in this Australian flick. Not a bad horror film, considering I've seen a lot and it takes plenty to impress at this point.It could have been more spectacular, but for a low-budget Indie type film from another country, it delivers enough entertainment and irony to keep you happy.More could have been done with the basement dwellers, and I don't think you can pour hot liquid into a tiny hole in the head without scalding the person's face off and the guy holding him.The protagonist should have run into the night instead of up a tree.The dorky kid who dated the cop's goth daughter was pretty funny. This added a light reprieve to the other gory stuff.Overall, not a bad effort, in a world populated by tons of crappy horror films.

I recently watched writer/director Sean Byrne's latest film 'The Devil's Candy' and enjoyed it so much I thought I better check out his previous film 'The Loved Ones'. I had no idea going in that it was an Australian film. Australian's have done some very fine horror films in their time, 'Wolf Creek' and its sequel being a couple of my favourites. I did enjoy 'The Loved Ones' but it would be fair to say Byrne had not mastered his art quite yet, nor would you expect him to have in his debut film.The movie is very dark and twisted which I liked very much. Sometimes films like this try not to take them self too seriously, and so they try and add an almost humorous layer into the mix, and it always just comes across terribly. There is none of that here from Byrne. Even though there are certain scenes that are certainly out there (and could even be considered funny in a way) they are never intended that way and the film remains very serious in tone.The acting is a little dubious in places, which hurts the film a substantial amount. The reason for this is because there are some truly great characters here just begging to be given the limelight. I read that John Jarratt (from 'Wolf Creek') turned down a role for fear of being typecast. It's a real shame he had to do that though, because he would have been ideal in this type of role and could have been the icing on the cake for the movie. There is enough originality here to make this a worthy watch though. It's certainly not perfect, but if you go in simply looking for a fun time, you're probably going to have one.

After reading the rave reviews from this film's rabid fan base, I was really looking forward to watching it. Unfortunately I found nothing special about this movie, actually I thought it was pretty boring. In general this movie tries too hard to be different. It feels like that kid in high school that WANTS everybody to think he's weird just to get attention. If you're not a true hardcore horror fan over 15 years old, this movie won't be for you. The acting is horrible, I would say "bright eyes" gets the best actress nod here. The special fx makeup is alright. The plot is not great, like I said before it tries too hard to be sadistic and it shows. And God-the stupid hipster soundtrack was more torture to me than what the main character had to endure. This isn't horror folks, it's a bad attempt to be artsy and twisted. Save your time and watch "I saw the devil" if torture and gore is what you're looking for. This movie is easily forgettable, thankfully.