I am rightfully rooted, which means I am very tired. So no stuffing around, Here is Salty Popcorn's review:

It was a quiet weekend in the outback so three uber cool horror films hooked up for a threesome. There was Wolf Creek, there was Hostel and then there was The Descent. The spawn from this horrific frivolity was The Loved Ones.

In order to avoid a ghostly figure in the road, high school senior Brent Mitchell wraps his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by his mother's emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana fueled world of loud metal music to block the pain and guilt. Dejected and out of sorts, he has a shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring girl with drop dead good looks, a dream date for the high school prom. But his plans are thwarted by a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer. Brent has become the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment.

For me this is by far the best horror film this country has produced, it is also my horror film of the year. I have not been so scared since I saw Scream for the first time in a 1000 seat cinema at midnight with one other person having no idea what it was about. My poor friend Sammy is no doubt suffering from a bruised arm today - I kept grabbing him and constantly leant towards him too scared to face the film alone. His comment on the film was "take the terror of Wolf Creek and times it by 1000".

It is not so much that it is a scary horror, although it is, it is more of a torture film that just scares the crap out of you at the possibility of being stuck in a similar situation. The film is so successful in it's execution that it shames many many slasher flicks made in the US on a huge budget. It is not only a horror film but one with a story, character development and characters you don't want to jump into the film and kill yourself. It successfully merges, unknowingly, three life stories and it does it all with limited dialogue.

Xavier Samuel is the lead and Xavier is my fave Australian actor, he stars in September, a film I reviewed in 2008, and claimed that he would take Hollywood and make it and following that I wrote about him in one of my favourite Australian films, Newcastle, where I went on further that he was about to hit it big time and now he has slaughtered the US market by nabbing the role of Riley in Twilight Eclipse. The Loved Ones was filmed prior to Eclipse and all I can say is I am so glad Hollywood listened to me hahahahahahaha. He plays this role superbly, considering his vocal cords do not work for 90% of this film everything is acted through emotions and strangled screams - he is brilliant!!

Robin McLeavy plays Mia and while she is a terminator styled serial killer from the bottom of the bucket of hell, I found some of her scenes way over acted, but this was also the success to a lot of her chilling delivery. John Brumpton is Mia's father, Eric, and he is just as creepy as his twisted daughter, they truly are best friends of the family from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hideous.

The film also has a great comic relief couple that end up tied to the main story by the end. Richard Wilson as Sac and Victoria Thaine as Holly are an odd couple that give us all a few scared nervous laughs and towards the end they broaden the story and we actually find out the meaning of them even being in the film. They were both great to watch and without their humour the film would have been a disaster and too much to handle.

This is director Sean Byrne's seventh film but The Loved Ones is the first time I have heard of him and I also think he may have grabbed the attention of the US and we may see some horror films getting directed by him in the future, the film has received massive kudos at all the US film festivals. He also wrote this film and manages to nail all the characters. The character of Brent (Xavier) is brilliant, complex and has so many issues. But his immediate issues can all be dealt with because of his trauma and issues. For someone that cuts himself and lives a life of self torture this torture he is thrust into is something he can handle but also something that can wake him from his stupor and life of guilt.

I would love to say that this is a must see, but you must have a strong stomach and be ready for torture and to be scared. My poosie friends at CINEFOOLS are going to wait until DVD in the middle of the day and I would not let my mum see this. It does make you laugh at how over the top some scenes get, some of it was nervous laughter for me, but one scene at the very end had the whole cinema in hysterics. The film is out on September 30 so buy some diapers and grab your date as this would be a perfect date night movie. Hahahaha