Reviews
‘The Loved Ones’ Review: A Gruesome, Underrated Horror Classic
“I’m gonna go to your house now and stab your mummy just like you did my Daddy. Then I’m gonna go find Holly and stab her in the heart just like you did to me.” Yeah, Carrie White might not be the scariest Prom Queen anymore…
A Modern Horror Gem by Sean Byrne
Directed by one of horror’s most underappreciated modern voices, filmmaker Sean Byrne (The Devil’s Candy, Dangerous Animals), The Loved Ones is a high school horror film not for the faint of heart. Starring Xavier Samuel and Robin McLeavy, the film clocks in at 84 minutes, but depending on who you ask, it could feel like a lifetime. The movie just barely crosses into the torture porn subgenre, and it basks in its bloody glory.
While its gruesome torture can be too much for less seasoned horror viewers, The Loved Ones is beyond worth the nausea if you can stomach it. The torture just on its own it may have fallen flat, as it did for many 2000s splatter flicks, but the movie is so much more. The Loved Ones is a parable on grief, a clever puzzle box of a low-budget mystery, a teen romance, a psychological nightmare, somehow kind of a zombie film, and, finally, more of a deconstruction of the torture porn subgenre than an actual entry. The Loved Ones is deeply underrated, but should be considered a horror classic.
A Quick Run-Down
The film has a relatively simple premise, but it works like a well-oiled machine in its nooks and crannies. When teenager Brent Mitchell (played by Xavier Samuels), grieving a parental loss, turns down a prom invite by the school’s resident outcast Lola, he then finds himself kidnapped, at the mercy of Lola and her creepy father (John Brumpton). Soon, a nightmare prom night of torture, bloodshed, and dark secrets ensue.
Defying Torture Porn and Conventional Antagonists
While The Loved Ones inarguably has a lot more going for it than just a plethora of nauseating visuals (which we’ll get into), it delivers on its splatter-y premise. Brent goes through just about everything a horror movie character can while somehow surviving. A heart is carved into his chest, he is stapled, stabbed, and beaten.
The most messed up part of the movie is what’s in the basement. Brent is not the first of Lola’s victims, and from a young age, she’s been kidnapping, using a drill and hot water to boil her victims’ brains, dumbing them down into essentially zombies. It is really fucked up. Other critics may say the movie goes too far in its torture, however, I am not other critics. The movie has just enough bloodlust to satiate the genre’s biggest gore hounds, but has enough of a compelling puzzle box story to earn it. Besides, the violence is so strikingly original, you are certain not to mix this up with a Hostel knock-off.
Additionally, Lola is a BRILLIANT villain. She is somehow sympathetic through all her torturous ways, and her odd demeanor adds a sense of morbid comedy to the whole thing. Her relationship with her dad is also bizarre, and their duo feels straight out of a Herschell Gordon Lewis flick. Both the type of torture, as well as the villains, defy typical conventions of 2000s horror.
2000s Horror Catnip
The film is a product of its time in the best way possible. Like other turn-of-the-millennium classics like House of Wax and Jennifer’s Body, the film revels in alternative aesthetics of the 2000s. Heavy eyeliner, plaid on band tees, and an indie rock soundtrack make it a pretty enjoyable time capsule. The fashion, the looks, and the angst all come together perfectly to make it a nostalgic throwback to the emo era. That may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but those looking for a more demented, grounded Jennifer’s Body have found the right place.
A Grief-filled Nightmare
The Loved Ones attacks the concept of grief much more intelligently and deeply than most horror films. It does merely, as so many do, create a supernatural antagonist to stand in for grief (a la the hundreds of Babadook knock-offs we’ve seen). The movie truly understands how grief is a tidal wave, sending shock waves and ripples through friends, families, and communities.
Brent is a grief-stricken teen, working through his father’s untimely death. He plays the role with subtlety, understanding the complexity of loss in a pained, yet determined performance. He is hurt, but his pain ultimately drives him to withstand some horrific torture. Grief makes him stronger.
A Community Shaped by Tragedy
Additionally, the waves of grief echo through the entire film. Lola’s impact on this small Australian community is seen in every character, and every moment of life in the film. For example, it is revealed that the car crash that killed Brent’s father was caused by one of Lola’s escaped victims (the person Brent almost hit). An entire subplot involving a school dance may seem pointless for most of the runtime, but it clicks at the end. Mia (Jessica McNamee) is a depressed alt girl; her screen time as the date of awkward stoner Jamie (Richard Wilson) seems pointless. The cuts to them at the dance seem mainly existent for comic relief. But, as it is revealed, Mia is actually the Brother of Timmy Valentine, one of Lola’s victims. This twist makes her small character, and their subplot of heavy drinking and depression makes sense.
Mia’s Father, a cop, is then driven to hunt for Brent. Every little thing is connected, and the overall metaphors work beautifully. The movie, for all its pomp and frills of blood and guts, is a puzzle box of a meditation on grief, and the power it holds.
While Dangerous Animals is a fantastic return to horror for Sean Byrne, it does not quite match the hectic, brutal, and disquieting terror of The Loved Ones. It is, however, great to see him return to the big screen. One can hope that with news of his latest flick, attention will be given back to this overlooked cult classic.
The Loved Ones is available for rent.
Haunted house stories are a staple in the horror genre. But it’s not often that a haunted house film digs its way under your skin and stays there long after the credits roll. Enter Recluse, celebrating its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.
A Disturbing Return Home Fuels Recluse’s Story
Joan Wyatt, a young and troubled audio engineer, is called back to her childhood home following a bizarre accident in which her father, the famous artist Lawrence Wyatt, was engulfed in flames and left in critical condition. Joan has been estranged from her father for quite some time, so when his longtime housekeeper Lydia leaves a voicemail telling her that he likely doesn’t have a lot of time left, she ignores it. But then Lawrence himself calls, telling Joan that he’s been seeing her mother—who disappeared when Joan was a child—around the house.
Joan arrives to find Lydia armed with a crossbow to ward off Lawrence’s obsessive fans. Her father is bed-bound with severe burns, and is being cared for by a hired nurse around Joan’s age named Emily. Lawrence, who notoriously experimented with psychedelics and occult practices during his career, is barely coherent and keeps his face concealed underneath a crude plaster mask. He keeps asking about his “little spider.” It’s disturbing and deeply upsetting, especially since Joan already has a lifetime of trauma associated with the house. Now that she’s back, she begins to suspect that these “ghosts” aren’t metaphorical. Lawrence was not a good man… but something even more sinister may be lurking in the house.
Henry Chaisson Reinvents the Haunted House Formula
Recluse, written and directed by Henry Chaisson, is a masterfully crafted debut feature that takes familiar elements of the haunted house genre—like a remote mansion as the setting, traumatic family secrets, and supernatural mischief—and twists them into something fresh and, well, twisted.
Sasha Frolova Leads an Exceptional Ensemble Cast
Sasha Frolova stars as Joan, delivering a performance that is both believable and compelling. She’s easy to root for throughout the film, especially as she contends with her father’s unwaveringly loyal housekeeper Lydia, brilliantly played by Toby Poser. Mia Vallet’s portrayal of Emily is also noteworthy, commanding attention from her first appearance all the way to the end. Kimball Farley plays Lydia’s son and Joan’s friend Todd with the perfect balance of levity and tension. Frankie Seratch is enjoyable to watch as the opportunistic nepo baby art dealer Tom. Rounding out the cast is Xander Berkeley as Lawrence; even from behind a mask, his performance is intense and chilling. Berkeley even provided some of his own art to be used in the film.
Sound Design and Cinematography Create Unrelenting Terror
The cast is far from the film’s only strength, though. Sound design by Matthew Rollins will have you death-gripping your seat in the best way, and serves as an integral part of the story itself. Production designer Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh and art director Ana María Kalvo absolutely nailed the set and made the Wyatt family mansion simultaneously sprawling and claustrophobic.
Finally, we have the beautiful and (appropriately) haunting cinematography by Bryce Holden, supported by the editing prowess of Nik Voytas, Josh Lobo, and Henry Chaisson. Not only did they maintain an air of unrelenting suspense throughout the entire film, but they also executed some of the most disturbing and bone-chilling jump scares I’ve seen in recent years.
Seriously: One of those jump scares made me feel physically ill. You’ll know it when you see it for yourself.
Recluse had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2026.
One of my favorite special interests is the Mormon-millionaire-real-estate-tycoon-owned Skinwalker Ranch. Mormon millionaire Brandon Fugal has crafted a wonderfully apophenic history in his post-Bigelow ownership. His perfectly curated release of pseudo-information through the lens of a History Channel TV show did wonders not just for his wallet but for docu-dramas as a whole. Fugal did what The Curse of Oak Island could have only wished to accomplish. BUT, three years before Joseph Smith’s teachings made their way to the Uinta Basin, a group of filmmakers set out to capitalize on one of America’s strangest phenomena. Skinwalker Ranch is a film that is as perplexing as it is insufferable.
Skinwalker Ranch: Missing Children, UFOs, and Found Footage Chaos
In 2010, Hoyt’s (Jon Gries) son disappeared in a blinding ball of light. Some time later, Modern Defense Enterprises sent a team of experts to Hoyt’s property to study what happened to Cody (Nash Lucas). Upon arriving at the property, MDE sets up a reality-TV-like number of security cameras in the hopes of finding anything. But what they found may just make them wish they hadn’t set foot on this property.
The Real History Behind Skinwalker Ranch Lore
As stated, the story of and behind Skinwalker Ranch is one of my favorite bits of Americana. From the Sherman family’s story, through Robert Bigelow’s ownership, all the way to its current Mormon occupation, the history behind Skinwalker Ranch runs deep. Dire wolves, dino beavers, and disappearing orbs, oh my! Whether you believe in the stories or not, Skinwalker Ranch is one of America’s biggest pieces of lore.
One of my favorite theories is that a resource-observing beacon was placed by, for lack of a better term, aliens when Pangea existed. Throughout the years, the dissolution of Pangea shifted the location of where the aliens placed the beacon to what is now considered the Mesa on the northern portion of Skinwalker Ranch’s property. The said beacon could very possibly be what causes the mysterious 1.6 GHz signal on the ranch, or why there are so many UAP sightings around the Mesa.
How Skinwalker Ranch Wastes Its Fascinating Premise
Now, I know all of this has been discovered post-Skinwalker Ranch (movie), but Hunt for the Skinwalker and Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp (and James T. Lacatski for Pentagon), had already been released. Dino beavers on Skinwalker Ranch had already been discussed. The true terror of Skinwalker Ranch had been disseminated by three highly regarded UFOlogists. So, for writer Adam Ohler (and story by Devin McGinn, Steve Berg, Ken Bretschneider, and Murphy Michaels) to craft such a plain story that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what makes Skinwalker Ranch even slightly interesting is confounding. It feels as if the writer/story creators heard the term “Skinwalker Ranch” and decided to focus on that, and that alone. Skinwalker Ranch has zero world-building, and hopes that the title is titillating enough to get someone to click ‘play’.
The singular great aspect about Skinwalker Ranch is the casting of Jon Gries (Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite) and Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk in Twin Peaks). Gries does enough carrying in this film to make up for dropping that winning pass. And it’s just wonderful to see Michael Horse in a film, even if he’s cast as a token Native American whose only purpose is to make the writers feel better for capitalizing on Native American lore. Besides that, the acting in Skinwalker Ranch is beyond atrocious. In fact, the acting feels so unnatural that I honestly thought the team from MDE was going to turn out to be the aliens that kidnapped Cody. Turns out, the story doesn’t even attempt to be 1% as clever as that.
A Massive Found Footage Failure
Skinwalker Ranch not only fails at being an interesting sci-fi horror flick, but it also fails at being a found footage flick. Full of awful CGI, bad acting, and an even worse script, Skinwalker Ranch exists as nothing more than a time waster. In fact, Travis Walton’s experience in Fire in the Sky would be more entertaining to take part in than watching even two minutes of this film–I’d rather get dry probed by the Hyperboreans than ever think of this movie again.
