Serial killers can’t emotionally connect with their victims. But the young killer-in-training in “Bereavement” can’t feel anything, period.
It’s one new wrinkle in a horror movie that feels patched together from a genre’s greatest hits sampler. But “Bereavement” isn’t a boilerplate thriller. Writer/director Stevan Mena takes great care assembling the familiar parts, and when innocents get the sharp end of a blade you’ll feel every twist of the knife.
“Bereavement” opens with a six-year-old child being snatched right out of his own backyard. Young Martin isn’t a typical toddler. He suffers from a rare condition which prevents him from feeling physical pain.
The kidnapper, a recluse named Sutter (Brett Rickaby), makes Martin his partner in crimes based on some quasi-religious voices in his head. And there’s plenty for young Martin to do, from cleaning up blood-stained cutlery to tidying up after yet another poor soul has been skewered.
The Sutter clan once ran a meat slaughterhouse in their cozy hamlet, and now the most infamous Sutter keeps the family business intact by substituting humans for livestock.
Flash forward five years later, and the story shifts to 17-year-old Allison (Alexandra Daddario, “Hall Pass”) who just suffered the loss of her parents. She’s moved in with her uncle Jonathan (Michael Biehn) but remains stunned by her family tragedy.
She distracts herself by flirting with a local ne’er do well (Nolan Gerard Funk) and jogging past an old building where a boy occasionally appears. Allison has no idea it’s the same lad abducted in the film’s opening sequence.
The low-budget “Bereavement” is shot with far more care than most studio-produced horror films. Mena frames even the most grisly sequences with a painterly eye, making the horrors on display more revolting. It’s one reason why the kill scenes jangle our nerves. There’s nothing ironic or stylized going on here. Mena doesn’t substitute snark for substance, nor does he hold anything back.
“Bereavement” is one nasty piece of work.
Biehn provides the grounding force, desperate to give Allison some comfort during her sudden transition into adulthood. But Daddario doesn’t inject Allison with enough complexity to balance Biehn’s performance. She’s beautiful and distraught, but her character still feels emotionally malnourished. The underutilized John Savage only garners two scenes of note here playing Funk’s boozy pappy, but both resonate beyond their screen time.
“Bereavement” can feel derivative – there’s little fresh about Sutter and his proclivities, and the space where he does his killing feels like a set borrowed from any other slasher film. And Martin’s emotional arc feels too obvious to add much to the proceedings besides another layer of sadness. In true horror film fashion, the main characters often make dunderheaded choices which seal their fates.
“Bereavement,” a prequel to Mena’s first horror film “Malevolence,” doesn’t till new ground or invite fresh fears into our dreams. It’s a rigorously crafted nightmare without limits, and its unexpurgated slaughters might be just the ticket for horror fans eager to see evil right up close.
(Photo: Brett Rickaby plays a remorseless killer in “Bereavement,” a new horror film hitting select theaters March 4. Crimson Films)
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