A Masterpiece!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Back in 2003, director Steven Mena made an ultra low budget slasher effort called Malevolence, chronicling the brutal crimes of a kidnapped child named Martin Bristol, who grew up watching his abductor commit heinous murders in front of him, and as such became a monster himself. The torch of evil was passed, but we never got to see those early years and the inciting incident which led to such madness. Cue a prequel, entitled 'Malevolence: Bereavment', a detailed, suffocating and very, very disturbing account of Martin's childhood initiation into the life of a serial killer, under the wing and at the hands of a madman named Graham Sutter (Brett Rickaby, a walking nightmare). He snatches 6 year old Martin (Spencer List) from a backyard swing, with designs on naming him as both protégé and acting as mentor, kidnapping locals in the area and subjecting them to unspeakable acts of violence and psychological experimentation, all in the name of some illusory philosophy that only makes sense in his diseased psyche. Meanwhile, a young girl (early work from Alexandra Daddario) moves into town to stay with her estranged uncle (Michael Biehn) and his family. While she tries to wade through a romantic coming of age story involving a local boy, events surrounding the killer's actions get perilously close to everyone, and erupt into one of the most stressful, harrowing chain of events I've ever seen in a horror film. Biehn is Hollywood's resident badass, but the genius in casting him here is that not even he is a match for Sutter's tedious reign of terror, and it's in such contrast that the film strikes despair right down to the bones. Sutter is barely human, with ninety percent of his dialogue spent on indecipherable rambling, making us feel all the more alienated by the fact that the only other human being around to soak up this toxic output is poor young Martin, on a clear path to mental destruction. These scenes are as lonesome and depressing as the acrid rural vista in which this all unfolds, and while we're thankful for atmosphere and setting, we can't wait to get out and breathe fresh air by barely the halfway mark, lest we choke on such overpowering despair. Keep an eye out for genre legend John Savage in a crotchety cameo, providing the film's single iota of comic relief. As much of a vicious little sleeper as the first film is, nothing quite compares to the sheer bleakness and soul dampening evil they achieved this time around. Don't go onto this one in a bad mood, it'll mess you up.

Not much going on throughout the movie... or I simply stopped paying attention. Alexandra Daddario is a beautiful actress with quite a few big movie roles under her belt; however, in this movie her character wasn't very bright and would progressively become more and more annoying (with the way she acts, she should've been dead 40 minutes in). The protagonist, Allison, pretty much becomes that one girl who is always going to be endangered no matter who comes to save her or how many times she escapes because of a villain known as MR. BAD PLOT... and I guess her own stupidity. How does she react when the killer or something bad appears? "Ahhhhh!" or she starts to cry. Next time try not to be so loud when your goal is to survive in a horror flick (SPOILER: Allison doesn't get another chance to redeem herself RIP). I swear I saw her going for a run early on in the movie, so why isn't she running now? (Rule #1 of horror 101: RUN RUN RUN!) As for the villain, he's... well, he's kind of lacking as he doesn't have a strong presence (he's not scary). The killer also didn't have a real advantage over any of the other characters, so I'm not sure why none of them were able to fight him off (seriously, it's just one guy). The guy seemed slightly below average in size (body mass), why is he overpowering everyone with such ease (1 jab knocks a girl out cold). The supporting cast didn't really add much substance to the narrative either and I didn't really care when or how they bit the dust. Another major character in the film is a boy named Martin who is kidnapped by our killer and latter becomes his successor in the movie Malevolent. This makes Bereavement a prequel that tries to explain why Martin turns into a murderer but fails to explain why this actually happens. How does the kid somehow inherit the killers traits? How does seeing a goat-head-thing translate to him gaining the mindset of a killer? Why was his transformation so quick (he did a complete 180)? These questions are never really answered, it just kinda happens because... you know... PLOT. The story failed to convey a smooth viewing experience, in fact, it was pretty bland and just seemed to drag on from start to finish (a bit slow for my taste). Overall the story deserves a 1.5 star, but the girl is quite the looker *cough* with massive assets *cough* and her aunt and uncle seemed like really cool people so I added another 3.5 stars.

This nutjob kidnaps a small boy to be a kind of mute companion / trainee / witness to his bloody murders. He kidnaps a screamy teenage girl (one of many, this one is particularly screamy, though), but her family (all people who have never seen a horror film before) come to rescue her one by one, and don't notice that the nutjob is creeping up behind them as he despatches them in unpleasant ways (except for Uncle Jonathan who he murders quite nicely with a shotgun). But the nutjob gets killed and the teenage screamy girl escapes, except she doesn't because the small boy knifes her multiple times, the end.This generic mad killer / slasher horror is slightly below average of its type, but gives the impression it thinks it is actually rather good, which it isn't. Michael Biehn and John Savage, a couple of decent actors, are both in it: this doesn't help. Brett Rickaby (of whom it has been said, "Who?") plays the nutjob. He is not very good (this is me being kind about his performance). Alexandra Daddario plays the main protagonist / victim. You will notice her very very blue eyes, her constant ear-splitting screaming and her impressively proportioned and vigorously nippled bosom. And not necessarily in that order.

I was a big fan of the fllm Malevolence of which this film is a prequel too. Well despite some better production values it doesn't even hold a candle to that film. Filled with an unnecessary amount of violence overkill we learn the roots of how the killer in the first one came to be. The other actors/victims in the film are decently developed and are surprisingly solid for a genre film. The direction and screenplay are the problem film. Besides looking gorgeous the film doesn't any real gratification the killers story is somewhat developed but the real truth is never explored. The film is kept as realistic as possible and is very mean. Building characters only to tear them down brutally for no real reason. the evolution of the events aren't very satisfying and the over abundance of shameless gore and pointless nudity feels crude. The best thing I can say about the whole downer experience is that it's well made and looks pretty besides that there's not much to offer here that you haven't seen before and explored more in depth and less bitingly.