BEREAVEMENT

A dark figure prowls the streets of a small town, crawling past the local school in his dusty old truck, Michael Myers style. He lingers on 6-year-old Martin.

Later that day, Martin’s protective mother is busy telling a prospective babysitter about his rare condition – he cannot feel physical pain – when the lad is abducted by the trucker.

Taken to the man’s remote home, Martin is forced to watch as the young girl strapped up before him is carved to pieces.

The action then shifts on by 5 years. We meet teenager Allison (Alexandra Daddario), fresh in the town following the death of her parents. She’s come, reluctantly, to live with her uncle Jonathan (Michael Biehn) and his family.

Allison’s a bit of a sulky cow to begin with. But her mood changes for the better when she goes out jogging one morning and meets horny teen Billy (Nolan Gerard Funk). There is an immediate attraction between the two of them, much to the distaste of watchful Jonathan.

Later that week, Jonathan warns Allison away from Billy. Partially because he lives next door to an old disused meat factory where his old school buddy Sutter (Brett Rickaby) used to get up to weird things.

Unbeknownst to anyone it would seem, Sutter is still indulging in excesses in the basement of his factory. It’s him who abducted Martin, and the kid – now 11 (Spencer List) – still resides there as a mute captive. Sutter is haunted by commands from a huge goat’s skull and believes it is his duty to mould Martin in his ways.

For a time, the film unfurls as two separate storylines: that of Allison’s integration into her new family’s life, and Sutter’s episodic introduction of new random victims for him to slay in front of an increasingly passionless Martin.

Of course, when Allison spies Martin’s sombre face peering at her from a factory window one morning, curiosity gets the better of her and the two worlds are destined to collide …

BEREAVEMENT is a dark, humourless horror in the same mean vein as SEED or MURDER-SET-PIECES. It’s never as graphic as either (though it is very gory at times), and is thankfully much better made.

There are some pretty sizeable holes in this film’s logic though. For instance, considering its small-town setting, there is no mention of this endless stream of young women who’ve been going missing in the area for at least 5 years. And, how do you condition a child who knows no pain or fear? Surely both are integral to the successful rolling out of grooming. Although, I’ve never groomed: this is total supposition on my part!

Performances are very strong in general. Daddario is a great lead and I predict we’ll see more of her in the near future. Rickaby lets the side down with an OTT portrayal of a psychopath that seems to be some ill-advised homage to ROADKILL: THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN MARTIN. I suppose writer-director Stevan Mena’s over-baked dialogue didn’t help him.

Beautifully shot and edited, making great use of some atmospheric Pennsylvanian locations, the film looks great and benefits further from a highly strung, successfully manipulative score which – despite its familiarity – does heighten the tense set-pieces.

The violence is grisly and unapologetic, especially in the final 20 minutes which are quite surprising in their "take no prisoners" approach. Try not to think of NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN too – you’ll know what I mean when the time comes!

Seeing violence perpetrated either in front of or onto kids is still shocking too, and Mena also pulls no punches here.

The film is a prequel to the director’s MALEVOLENCE and is a step up in technical terms, being both aesthetically sound and emotionally powerful. If it doesn’t entirely work that’s down to the above quibbles and an overall lack of pace, but it’s still more of a hit than a miss.

Keep watching past the end credits, too, for an intelligently placed flash-forward to a "5 years later" scene which utilises footage from MALEVOLENCE.

High Fliers are releasing the film uncut on to UK DVD.

The screener disc provided for review was a DVD-R, containing a timecoded version of the film only. It’s fair to say this window-boxed presentation is not remotely indicative of the eventual retail DVD’s quality.

For what it’s worth, the film has a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is gorgeously photographed. A good transfer (which I’m sure it’ll have) will look amazing. Likewise, the English audio – including that bombastic score – is bound to sound great on DVD.

BEREAVEMENT is grim, downbeat, not for everyone – but very well-made. I’m interested to see where Mena will take this story when he completes his promised trilogy.

Review by Stuart Willis