This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
𝑀𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑠’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Directed, written, edited, scored and produced by Stevan Mena, Bereavement if nothing else, is a dedicated achievement.
First off, the cinematography (Marco Cappeta) for this is amazingly well done and seems somewhat conflicting with some of the films made for TV (which it is not) sensibilities. At times it does seem to be two films, one a family drama and the other an Ed Gein style horror. But it is done in such a way that when the two do meet, it makes perfect sense, we have established rounded characters in a serial killer style horror, giving it some depth.
It is the horror that sticks out, it is a fairly restrained film (till the final ten minutes that is) and when the violence does erupt it is suitably shocking and effective. A scene involving a meat hook, whilst definitely not original, is done in such a way that it is to be admired. Bereavement is nothing new, it just approaches old sources at differing angles.
Alexandra Daddario (slightly reminding me of Sherilyn Fenn) plays the female lead and does well in the scream queen role. Michael Biehn plays her concerned uncle and Spencer List plays a mute child taken in by our lovable psychotic maniac. Speaking of which, it is Brett Rickaby who gets to show his chops, as the Jeepers Creepers style van driving killer. Small tip, if you are stalking people, find something less creepy to drive up to people in, like maybe a Volkswagen Passat or summin, might be less chance of getting caught, just a hunch.
I can totally dig why a lot of people will not like this film. The story is overly familiar, the pacing reasonably slow and the twist may be obvious and a bit too much for some. If there had been no twist, I am not sure if I would of liked the film less or more, but it certainly changed the dynamic of the film I thought I was watching. All of the sudden I realized I could be watching the birth of a new horror icon/franchise. Though on closer interwebz inspection, I found out this was already a prequel! So damn. I need to check out Malevolence, I will be pished if it turns out to be a rubbish addition, so fingers crossed.