The Loved Ones (2009)
October 17, 2015 10:38 AM - Subscribe

When Brent turns down his classmate Lola's invitation to the prom, she concocts a wildly violent plan for revenge.

This is a selection of MeFi Horror Club, details about which can be found here.
posted by DirtyOldTown (6 comments total)
 
Setting the protagonist up as having a penchant for self-mutilation was ironic and harsh, and maybe a bit cruelly funny.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:02 PM on October 17, 2015


I am still reflecting on this movie, and have not yet decided how to unpack the gender and sexual stuff in the movie beyond the obvious surface level stuff.

I will say this though: Lola and Daddy are straight-up scary in a classic horror movie way. Maybe that is enough.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:19 PM on October 17, 2015


One of the really striking things about this movie that I keep thinking about is how serious the protagonist's injuries are from early in the movie. This is a hero who may escape, but he is emphatically not going to be okay. From having bleach injected his voice box and likely never speaking again, to the giant heart with Lola's initials carved into his chest, to the mutilation of his foot, to having a goddamned hole drilled into his skull... Brent comes out of this seriously fucked up.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:30 AM on October 20, 2015


The more I think about it, the more I am starting to wonder if this entire movie isn't a sort of sly way to get entitled young men to consider the way they treat young women, particularly vulnerable women. You've got a psychologically wounded protagonist who ends up in peril because of a not-at-all unkind rejection of an unwanted advance. The rejectee feels so aggrieved not to the get the attention/affection that is felt to be deserved, violence ensues. They flip-flopped the genders in a way that maybe makes this medicine go down easier.

I'm actually more impressed with this movie the more I think about it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:17 PM on October 24, 2015


One of the really striking things about this movie that I keep thinking about is how serious the protagonist's injuries are from early in the movie. This is a hero who may escape, but he is emphatically not going to be okay.

I think this is probably where the movie lost me. Violence doesn't usually bother me, but this torture was too much, and the knowledge that there was very little chance of much of any recovery was depressing.

You are right that it has some fascinating things to say about gender (and, probably, rape). That kind of makes me want to watch it again.
posted by graventy at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2015


I decided on October 1st that I would watch a horror movie each night for the whole month, and The Loved Ones was my pick for last night. Except that I got half an hour in and then bailed. I didn't research this one for long enough before I selected it, a mistake I shall be careful not to repeat. I thought it was going to be funny in a dark, campy way, and it wasn't at all. I like horror movies, but I like them to have some element of the supernatural and to not be too violent. I have zero interest in seeing horror movies that are merely about how horribly brutal humans can be. I couldn't bear the prospect of seeing that poor boy be injured and mutilated beyond all hope of a reasonable recovery when he was already traumatized and grieving. I could barely stand seeing what happened to the dog. I don't see the point of making such a movie.
posted by orange swan at 5:22 PM on October 5, 2018


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