In 2004 director/writer Stevan Mena unleashed his slasher film Malevolence on the horror world. Shot on 35mm for less than $200,000 the film won numbers awards at genre festivals like New York Horror Film Festival. Bereavement is a prequel focuses on the childhood of Martin, the killer in Malevolence.
Kidnapped as a young boy, Martin (Spencer List) is raised by Graham Sutter (Brett Rickaby) in the crumbling carcass of a meat processing plant. There Martin is exposed to the depravity of Sutter’s troubled mind as he abducts and viciously murders numerous women. When Martin draws the attention of seventeen-year-old Allison (Alexandra Daddario) she threatens to expose Sutter’s sick and secret world. But Sutter will go to all lengths to keep Allison quiet and Martin by his side.
Bereavement is far more complex than Malevolence. Rather than a straightforward slasher film Mena has attempted to create a film that is as psychologically troubling as it is gory. The film does a fine job establishing how and why Martin grows up to be a heartless killer but the characters and the subplots surrounding Martin’s story are a bit muddled and unclear. Mena reveals the reason behind some of the confusion in his audio commentary where he discusses at length editing out sections of the film while editing, the various changes that he made while shooting the film and the reasoning behind some of the characters’ motivations that lurked underneath the surface (particularly in regard to Sutter).
The cast, which also includes Michael Biehn as Allison’s uncle and John Savage as Ted, the father of Allison’s love interest William, is quite good and helps to carry the film over its more laborious moments. Daddario, Rickaby and List are both fantastic in their roles.
Bonus features include Mena’s commentary where he spends a lot of time explaining some of the less effectively told nuances of the film, a handful of deleted scenes, a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes, the theatrical trailer, a TV spot and a collection of still photography.
Bereavement is a flawed, but still recommendable, horror film that would have benefited from a tighter edit and a more focused script. Fans of Malevolence won’t be disappointed and Mena promises a sequel to conclude the trilogy’s story arch. I’ll be looking forward to that.