There are some evils… so unspeakable… they’ll scar you forever.
Director: Stevan Mena
Bereavement, which is a prequel to Malevolence, Stevan Mena’s 2004 slasher, is essentially an origin story. It explains how the killer in Malevolence came to exist, and it’s an interesting yet occasionally muddled story. Mena clearly has ambition for his project – a third film in the series is apparently in the works – but this film is slightly too ambitious. There is clearly no shortage of ideas Mena wants to explore, and many of those ideas are smart and intriguing, but the addition of some unnecessary narratives kept a good film from being great.
In the winter of 1989 in the small town of Minersville, Pennsylvania, six-year-old Martin Bristol is kidnapped by Graham Sutter (Rickaby). Sutter is intrigued by Martin’s quiet calmness and the fact he doesn’t feel painful sensations – a condition known as CIPA. He decides that Martin is a good prospect to “learn the business” and forces him to watch as he brings victims back to his home and dispatches them one by one…
Five years after Martin’s adoption, Allison (Daddario) moves in with her uncle Jonathan (Biehn) and his family when her parents die in a car accident. One day while jogging by the old Sutter Meat & Poultry plant, she sees a boy peering through a window. She asks her uncle about the boy, but he’s dismissive of the experience. As she continues to settle into her new surroundings – splitting her time between her little niece Wendy and a local guy, Billy – the boy she saw that day never leaves her mind. When she finally sees him again, she tries to talk to him but is unwittingly drawn into the sadistic world of Sutter and his reluctant protégé.
Many of the ideas writer and director Stevan Mena interjects into Bereavement are interesting. Nature vs. Nurture – whether one’s character is inherent or the result of outside influences – is the most prominent (made obvious by a high school lecture on the concept), and I was intrigued by the Sutter’s psychosis – I like the idea of a child forced to work in the family’s slaughterhouse becoming a mentally disturbed adult riddled by guilt over the horrors he committed as a child. Mena adds a little religious satire to further layer his motivations, and while I’ll concede it’s all a cocktail of Norman Bates and Leatherface, I still find it a compelling and completely plausible one, which is more than you typically receive from a film like this..
Mena’s direction is also competent, as he handles subtle, atmospheric development and lively chase sequences with skill and a deadly serious tone. He captures the sparse countryside where screens go unheard for miles, and his set pieces feel authentic and add to the realism he aims to achieve. Brett Rickaby also clearly relishes his role as Sutter, chewing up his scenes as a man driven to murder by the sins of his past. He’s a pleasure to watch, and the rest of the cast serve adequately in their roles as well.
Mena’s commentary is also a must listen. It seems the script went under a bit work and several scenes were cut from the film. He talks in depth about the psychology behind his characters and helps to clarify his intent. He even recognizes the problem with how Allison enters Sutter’s home – the biggest “Why the fuck did she do that?” moment in the film. It turns out the original scene he wrote was more plausible – she walks into his home only a little before the old, slaughterhouse floor collapses and she becomes trapped in the basement – but he had to re-write it on the fly due to technical issues with the collapse. He defends the scene as is, but what is he supposed to do at this point?
But his film simply has too many narratives. We have Martin’s abduction and gradual development as a killer, Sutter’s brutal childhood and subsequent psychosis, which is plenty convoluted on its own, Billy’s past and his drunken father and Allison’s blossoming relationships with her uncle and possible interest in Billy. It’s all structured fairly coherently for how much is going on, but much of it is unnecessary and clouds what the film is truly about: Martin. This film should be about the birth of a killer, and it is, but a busty, next-door neighbor gets herself into trouble along the way, and I’ve already seen that film a bunch of times before. I would’ve rather seen Mena focus more on Sutter’s psychosis, which had a lot of layers to explore, and its influence on Martin than the development of his victims (Billy’s subplot should’ve also been completely removed from the film).
Overall, Bereavement is decent. It’s held back slightly by its ambitions, but fans of psychological thrillers and slasher films alike should find plenty to love.