YMMV / The Loved Ones

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Has Lola been a twisted Sadist since birth who motivated her father to start kidnapping boys out of a desire to please her? Or has Mr. Stone always been unstable and he raised Lola to be like that?
• Broken Base: Jamie and Mia's subplot provides some much needed breaks from all of the Torture Porn while showcasing the effects of Lola's previous crimes. Or it's just a classic Trapped by Mountain Lions scenario.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Surprisingly, Lola does have a decent number of defenders, this despite her doing nothing but reprehensible things throughout the movie.
• Funny Moments:
  • Brent's imitation of a grumpy old man at the beginning of the film.
  • Jamie attempts to impress Mia by sliding across the hood to open the door on her side of the car. But he fails to mount the hood and falls to the ground.
• Heartwarming Moments: When Holly asks Brent for the name of the other girl who asked him to prom, his initial reply is a heartfelt "She wasn't you."
• He's Just Hiding: Some fans like to think that Mia's brother, the escaped victim from the beginning, is still alive wandering around the hills and has a chance of being found, mainly due to how this would lessen Mia's woobie status after she loses her dad at the end.
• Hollywood Homely: Lola is supposed to come across as the plain-jane high school wallflower. This is despite being played by the very attractive Robin McLeavy. It's subverted in that she was initially shown in a more frumpy light when first introduced. But then she becomes noticeably more attractive when she glams up for "the big night".
• Nausea Fuel: Milk has never been quite so disgusting...
• The Woobie:
  • Brent. He loses his father in a driving accident, and he has a hard time coping with it. Then along comes Lola...
  • Lola's previous victims. Including her own mother.
  • Jamie's formal date, Mia. At the end of he movie, she comes home hungover and climbs into bed. She doesn't know yet that her father has been murdered. She also doesn't know, and might never know, that her dearly-missed brother Tim was actually one of Lola's previous "dates". Since he died in the hills, his body might never be found.
  • Brent's mother. She lost her husband in a car crash and is paranoid about letting her son get into a car with inexperienced drivers. She has a haggard look all of the time, and also has to deal with her son’s kidnapping and the death of the family pet.
• Woolseyism: A rare English-to-English version. Most of the blurbs describing this movie (including the poster that provides this movie's page image) refer to Lola wanting Brent to be her prom date. But in Australia, the end-of-year dance for final year high school students is simply called "the formal" or "school formal" (probably because it's the only school dance where you're required to attend in formal wear). Strangely, even the Australian Blu-ray release refers to Brent becoming the "Prom King" of Lola's twisted fantasy. However, Australian formal's don't have any equivalent to the American Prom King or Queen, although it does refer to a school formal dance.

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