Bereavement (2011)

Director: Stevan Mena
Cast: Alexandra Daddario, Brett Rickaby, Michael Biehn, Spencer List, Nolan Funk, and Valentina DeAngelis.

PLOT:
A crazy man kidnaps pretty young women and kills them; meanwhile Allison is a new girl in town who recently lost her parents. Her path is about to cross with this crazed man.

REVIEW:
The slasher film is going instinct. It’s sad but true. What was once a thriving sub-genre putting out many of its kind per year, is now almost gone. It has been replaced by torture films and remakes and mockumentary films. It’s a sad, sad life. Thankfully we did get SCREAM 4 this year, which rocked…but out of nowhere comes BEREAVEMENT, a prequel to Stevan Mena’s MALEVOLENCE from 2005. To say the film backhanded me would be an understatement. BEREAVEMENT is a wonderfully bleak and scary film that all horror fans should seek out…LIKE NOW!!!
As of now, BEREAVEMENT is my top horror film of 2011, officially beating KIDNAPPED. There is three months left of this year, but I doubt any horror film will do what BEREAVEMENT did for me. This film excited me, scared me, and really got me like not many horror films do. Where do I begin with BEREAVEMENT?
This film went places not many horror films go and this disturbed, shocked and scared me. I’m not saying this was an overly gory film made for shock treatment alone (This is no Human Centipede…fuck that movie); but this film was a realistic return to form for the horror genre. It acted as a how a realistic slasher villain could work. What really worked is Mena’s strong screenplay that had two storylines that balanced each other perfectly and a strong knack at character development. Throughout the film there are two storylines: Allison’s and Martin’s.
Allison is a young girl, 17, who has recently lost her parents and now is living in the middle of nowhere with her aunt and uncle and must put her life back together again. She is gorgeous, sweet, selfless, and mostly smart. She might not make the best decisions, but when she is doing something dumb, it is to help someone else making me love her even more. She is a realistic flawed character who is dealing with the shit life has thrown at her, even getting a cute boy to fall for.
On the other side of things we have Martin’s storyline. He is a young boy who can’t feel pain who was abducted at a young age by Graham Sutter. Sutter has turned the boy into an apprentice of sorts and is raising him to be like him – a crazed murderer. One wouldn’t think these storylines would mix well, but they do ESPECIALLY when they finally come together for a last act that will leave you speechless.
What makes this slasher film different then most though, are the characters. This film put character development first, and by doing so got me to fall in love with each and every character so when the hammer swung down I felt it. I didn’t want Allison to cross paths with Sutter. I just wanted her to get Martin and not even meet up with Sutter. Sadly she is caught by Sutter…and that is where the final act begins. The final act of this film is intense, nail-biting, and had me screaming and clawing in suspense. Guess what…the film even had a CHASE SCENE half way through, which lead to the best death of the entire movie.
Graham Sutter, himself is a great villain. He is a real psycho that I even somewhat felt bad for, because he really believed everything he was saying. But I never stopped being scared of him. The acting in this film was excellent from everyone. Michael Biehn rocked it as usual (he’s such a badass), but the standouts were Brett Rickaby as Sutter, Spenser List as Martin Bristol, and Alexandra Daddario as Allison. These three actors really went all out creating three amazing characters. I expect big things for Daddario and List especially. List had not one word of dialogue and completely sold his role with just his eyes and body language alone…wow!
Mena didn’t just write the film near-perfectly, but his direction was beautiful! He really was able to generate a lot of suspense and shot some scary death scenes. Those scenery shots were gorgeous and he made me want to live in the middle of nowhere. He really showed how expansive the land was and made it look hopeless and secluded. The film had a dark bleak edge that really won me over. This is NOT a happy movie. And if Mena didn’t do enough already, he also wrote that musical score – HOLY SHIT! This man can apparently do no wrong. I got shades of an early John Carpenter with this film, and the music is no different. The score was beautiful, creepy, and perfectly complemented the film.
My flaws are rather tiny to be honest. There were a lot of dumb character moves, like going into a creepy slaughterhouse alone where no one knows you are for one example. Also the opening scene is supposed to imply that Sutter goes to other towns and states to kidnap his women, but it isn’t shown clearly (I only know this because of the commentary track) and by not showing this well it opens up a plot hole for most people, myself included, of why aren’t the police tracking down these missing women? My final small flaw is that while the film had some good chase scenes, including one great one, Daddario didn’t get one. She’s our heroine and she is a track star in the film and she is being set up as a great runner that can run for miles…so I was expecting an awesome chase scene with her…but that sadly disappointed me.
But in the end, these flaws are so tiny that I can’t deny that this is the best horror film I’ve seen all year. This film did almost everything right from a technological aspect to the wonderful characters, and was scary as hell. This film nailed being a drama, a romance, a tragedy, and a horror film. This is true horror at it’s finest and has a final act you’ll never forget about.

Verdict: 10/10