The Loved Ones

The Loved One – The Official Trailer from Madman Entertainment on Vimeo.

(Note: Without headphones, this video is a little NSFW)

The trailer for Australian horror film The Loved Ones has been circulating the interweb over the last few days, with many forum-contributors and comment-leavers crying “Spoiler!”.

The film is the first feature from writer-director Sean Byrne and stars Xavier Samuel, the new addition to those emo vampire movies (which is, most likely, the reason for it getting more publicity now than it did a year ago on the festival circuit), as Brent, a high school senior mourning the death of his father in a rural town. It sounds pretty grim and not unlike many Australian kitchen-sink dramas, but, having caught it at Melbourne International Film Festival last year, we can assure you it’s anything but.

The film is a satisfying mesh of grizzly violence and dark comedy, with critics describing it as a combination of Pretty in Pink and Wolf Creek. While it overflowed with enough twists to ensure our fingernails were firmly embedded in the armrests of our cinema seats, the trailer does, admittedly, ruin a handful of them. If you want to be surprised when it’s released in late September, we recommend not watching past the 25-second mark in the clip.