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"An excellent psychological study of madness and the passing of madness to another person"
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Rating:
"Bereavement" is supposedly the chilling prequel to "Malevolence," another supposedly chilling film. However, after watching this dud, I have no plans on giving "Malevolence" a look.
+1
"Bereavement" tells two stories at once. Firstly, it gives us a look at the horrific childhood of Martin Bristol (Spencer List), who suffers from a condition that prevents him from feeling heat, cold, pain, etc. He is kidnapped as a toddler by Graham Sutter (Brett Rickaby), a serial killer who has the same condition. Sutter forces little Martin to witness and sometimes participate in the brutal murder of innocent and seemingly random women as Sutter tries to understand their pain.
The second story in this film is that of Allison Miller (Alexandra Daddario). She moves from busy Chicago to the rural home of her uncle, Jonathan (Michael Biehn), and his family after her parents pass away. As is always the case in movies, she is having a bit of trouble adjusting to her new home, but finds solace in her daily runs that pass in front of an abandoned slaughterhouse that is conveniently the home of Graham and Martin and their growing body count of dead girls.
The two stories come together when Allison notices Martin looking out of a window at the slaughterhouse and she decides to find out what is going on with the mysterious little boy. Blood, guts, and gore ensue.
The film is nothing more than an excuse for the FX guys to chunk fake blood at the screen and the actors, for the director to attempt to gross you out with said fake blood, and for the actors to scream their heads off (every female in the movie) or passively go through the motions (Biehn). The victims overacted in order for you to realize just how terrible their situation (or the film itself) really was.
I enjoy Biehn's work usually (especially in "Tombstone"), but he looked as if he didn't even want to be on set for the duration of the film.
Spencer List did little more than have a questioning look on his face the entire time. Rickaby pulled off psycho fairly good, but wasn't enough to save the film. Allison's love interest, William (Nolan Gerard Funk), did a decent job as well.
Daddario gave a very thin performance, and in true Hollywood virginal beauty fashion, wore a shirt that was just as thin. While she was quite nice to look at, her performance was nothing to brag about.
Overall, "Bereavement" will most likely appeal to fans of hack trash like "Saw" and "Hostel," but it will never add much to an already bloated genre of weak films.
Not recommended.
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woopak_the_thrill
December 20, 2011
Hmmm...nice. I liked "Malevolence" so despite your less than impressive rating, I may still see this one. I am a sucker for blood and gore, seems like this is getting a few mixed reactions here. Good write up! (She looks hot LOL!)
kfontenot
December 20, 2011
To me it played out like an old Wayne's World skit where Wayne pretends to be dying. He screams out, "Blood, guts, entrails, ooooh, blood, guts, entrails!" over and over. That's exactly what I saw in this flick. It's as if they tried so hard to convince you that what was happening was terrible, that the end result was over the top and ridiculous.
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BEREAVEMENT {The state of being deprived of something or someone : the loss of a loved one by death.} That good people is a quick definition of the word that lays claim to the title of this film. Makes sense since this is a prequel to a film called "Malevolence", both by writer/director Steven Mena. Check out the definition of that word and it all makes sense, would be interesting to see what a third film in this series would be called. … more
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As more time goes by, I personally believe it becomes more challenging maybe even difficult to make a horror movie truly scary, fresh and original. This is mainly due to the plethora of remakes, stale ideas and clichés that submerge the horror genre of film. As for this independent horror movie named "Bereavement", it is able to succeed in some areas and fail miserably in others. The movie has an interesting plot, rather two plots that end up blending into … more
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Now this is not a perfect film and might not make every ones personal favourites list but it is a good flick. I can see how some would not like it as much and how others could love it. It could be another low budget classic that picks up viewers the longer it is out. I personally think it is a really good movie especially if you have seen the first one.
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This is a horror film. Its director said he wanted to explore the psychology of madness and the passing of madness from one person to another; and he succeeds in doing so. The film also prompts us to think. In 1989, a serial killer, driven to inflict brutality upon teen age girls and then murdering them, kidnaps a six-year old boy who doesn't speak and happens to suffer from a disease that causes him not to feel pain. He teaches the boy all he knows, but five years later … more
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About the reviewer
Kendall Fontenot (kfontenot)
Ranked #5
Ranked #5
Despite looking extremely cool, I have to admit that I'm a dork. I grew up on the outskirts of the small town of Oberlin, LA. I have since relocated to the Lake Charles, LA area.I love my home state … more
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