10) The Loved Ones (2009)
Australians sure do have a penchant for abduction films. Whether it’s Wolf Creek or this year’s newcomer Hounds of Love – which The Guardian is calling the “scariest film of the year” – many of Australia’s best cinematic exports deal with the horror of isolation and abduction. Perhaps many of these filmmakers find these terrifying inspirations in the setting around them. After all, the majority of the country is an arid desert, making for the perfect setting to abduct, torture and kill innocent individuals that can do nothing but futilely scream into nothingness.
It’s a terror unlike most of the ones found on this list, for the audience’s’ fear is not based in the supernatural but rather in reality. In a prom date from hell scenario, The Loved Ones is an adept directorial debut from short filmmaker Sean Byrne, who demonstrates an earnest approach that is at times as campy as it is gruesome.
With everything from lobotomies to cannibalistic slaves, The Loved Ones seldom takes any niceties when exploring the disturbed minds of abductors Lola and Daddy. It’s a mature first feature from Byrne that showcases the nascent filmmakers cinephilic fervor and one that will hopefully continue past the director’s equally unsettling sophomore attempt, The Devil’s Candy.