Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Initially coined by critics as a derogatory way to describe the goriest and most violent of horror films, “torture porn” has been unfairly slapped on many great movies. Not to say that some films don’t deserve the moniker, but there’s plenty “torture porn” films that have a lot more depth than the phrase suggests. Such is the case with Sean Byrne’s bold debut The Loved Ones. After a strong festival run that won the hearts of critics and festival goers, it received a quiet, small release stateside where other critics dubbed it torture porn. Granted, it does get far more nihilistic and gleeful in its approach to torture and violence than most mainstream critics can handle, but The Loved Ones has so much more to offer than that.
Opening with a harrowing car accident involving Brent (Xavier Samuel) and his father colliding with a tree to avoid someone in the road, the film cuts to six months later. Brent bears the awful weight of guilt on his shoulders over his father’s death. He’s withdrawn, brooding, and lashes out. He resorts to self-mutilation and smoking weed as a coping mechanism, though it’s hardly working. Enter Lola Stone (Robin McLeavy), a socially awkward classmate that’s set her sights on Brent. Though he politely turns her offer down to attend the dance together, she’s having none of it. Next thing you know, Brent is attacked from behind and knocked unconscious, only to wake and find himself trapped in Lola’s house with her and her father.
Tied to a chair, Lola immediately injects Brent’s throat with a syringe filled with bleach, rendering his voice box unusable. From there, poor Brent’s time at the Stone household becomes a horror-filled prom night from hell. Yet, one that provides an unexpected form of catharsis. Throughout all of the torture Lola and her creepy father inflicts upon Brent, be it carved flesh with salt rubbed in, knives pinning his feet to the floor, and more; what Brent learns about the Stones lessens his burden of guilt over the death of his father, therefore reinstating his will to live.
While the gore and violence are extremely well done, thanks to sfx makeup supervisor Justin Dix (Lake Mungo, The Babadook) and his team, including hair and makeup designer Zeljka Stanin (Upgrade, Thor: Ragnarok), it’s not nearly as overt and terrible as it seems. Well, that’s not completely true; the torture the Stones’ inflict on Brent is brutal. But it’s also bolstered by focusing on just how utterly creepy and unhinged the family is, and the use of implied violence. When the cellar full of Lola’s previous love rejects are revealed, all monstrous and starved, it’s revealed that the captives were lobotomized by drilling into their skulls and pouring boiling water into the hole. The Loved Ones shows us the first step, at least partway, but the implication of that second step provides a mental image that makes the gore on screen seem that much worse. That Lola’s father has an unhealthy love of his daughter, and that her mother was among the first of the lobotomized furthers the demented feel of what’s happening to Brent. The torture on screen is amplified by what we’re told.
Byrne’s debut is a love letter to his horror influences, from Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead to Carrie. It’s utterly brutal, and yet there’s a lot of warped humor, too. For all of the torture and the gleeful way that Stones revel in it, these are fully rendered characters. McLeavy gives us a rare, sadistic villainess in Lola, but Brent’s transformation from normal teen to suicidal to life-affirming acceptance feels complete. It took Byrne six years too many to deliver a follow up in The Devil’s Candy. Let’s hope it doesn’t take nearly as long for his next horror film.
