The Steer are Lead to Slaughter

Bereavement Review

There are very few movies that seem to have all of the right pieces to the puzzle, but just fall short when they are all put together. That is exactly how I feel about Stevan Mena’s Bereavement.

As soon as the film starts, it is clear to see just how polished and pristine everything looks. That is not to say that the film itself doesn’t have a degree of grittiness to it because it certainly does. What I mean is that the production quality for this film is remarkably high. Mena was most definitely backed by the perfect people, as one can easily tell the budget for this film must have been rather high, especially for a film that never saw a proper theatrical release.

The gore effects in Bereavement were rather stunning and everything had a realism to it that really brought the imagery to the next level. There are certain scenes that will make the biggest gore fiends grimace, which is definitely a plus in my book.

Even with the processed look and the beautiful blood effects, something still wasn’t right. The acting was okay with performances ranging from forgettable to outstanding. Brett Rickaby plays the seemingly insane antagonist, Graham Sutter. He easily outshines everyone else in the film. We all know Alexandra Daddario from last year’s Texas Chainsaw 3D and while she added some eye-candy to the film, her performance was lackluster.

I will say that the last 15 minutes of the film did manage to bring up my final rating. In addition, it did convince me that I should, at some point, go back and watch Mena’s first film, which this is a prequel to, entitled Malevolence.

If you are looking for a film that is great looking, but can try your patience at times, Bereavement is worth checking out. I give it 2.5 bull skulls out of 5.

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