The Loved Ones

AroView: The rejected classmate of a high school heartthrob turns psycho in this slickly made prom romance-cum-torture horror from Australia.

After a promising and surefooted opening in the ‘normal world’, it’s almost a shame that the film-maker lets his baser instincts get the better of him, and he shows little restraint meting out the power-tool cruelty and laboured black humour. However, Robin McLeavy is still pretty in blood-spattered pink and the film is effective in its modest aim to test the squeamishness of young audiences.