Seven British slackers spend the weekend making a slasher flick about a self-appointed Celtic priestess. Neil even brings a video of his therapist. Unable to face the weekend without her support, he furtively taped his last session. When he can't cope—most of the time—he slips off for a consultation.

Neil hopes to make love to Rose, a virgin who believes that her unsullied state inspired the slasher movie story line. Neil and his co-writer, Lance, deny her accusations, though her sidekick and the camerawoman, Zita, share her suspicions.

Zita also locks horns with Giles, a sneering intellectual who secretly collects mass murder memorabilia. He wants to inject more savage symbolism into the slasher movie, but cannot overcome the resistance of the gentle, born-again Lionel. Tensions rise when Lance discovers Lionel kissing Rose and tattles to the jealous Neil. In hopes of renewing their emotional bond, they "get loaded" together on LSD. Matters go from bad to worse when one of the seven is accidentally killed and then buried in a shallow grave while the remaining six debate the advisability of going to the cops. -- Rita Kempley

By Rita Kempley
Washington Post Staff Writer
April 27, 1996

In "Loaded," seven British slackers spend the weekend making a slasher flick about a self-appointed Celtic priestess—a dark comedy that promises to be much more watchable than Anna Campion's flabby, psychoblabby drama. It's this first movie from Campion, a group therapist turned writer-director, that's the true horror here. I'll take soot-smeared Druidic virgins over self-absorbed neurotic twerps any day of the bloody week.

Alas, the man-killing Celts must take a back seat to the whining and kvetching that goes on between takes. The lost splendor of the setting, a neglected country estate, doesn't encourage ghosts, but group therapy over dinner, drinks and lysergic acid diethylamide.

One of the more disturbed young filmmakers, Neil (Oliver Milburn), even brings a video of his therapist (Dearbhla Molloy). Unable to face the weekend without her support, he furtively taped his last session. When he can't cope—most of the time—he slips off for a consultation. Fortunately, the mansion is overstuffed with couches.

Neil hopes to make love to Rose (Catherine McCormick), a winsome virgin who rightly believes that her unsullied state inspired the slasher movie story line. Neil and his co-writer, Lance (Danny Cunningham), deny her accusations, though her sidekick and the camerawoman, Zita (Thandie Newton), share her suspicions. (But so what if they did steal Rose's life story? Many screenwriters write what they know. And Campion, of all people, ought to recognize that.)

Zita, the most down-to-earth of the bunch, also locks horns with Giles (Nick Patrick), a sneering intellectual who secretly collects mass murder memorabilia. He wants to inject more savage symbolism into the slasher movie, but cannot overcome the resistance of the gentle, born-again Lionel (Mathew Eggleton). Tensions rise when Lance discovers Lionel kissing Rose and tattles to the jealous Neil.

In hopes of renewing their emotional bond, they "get loaded" together on LSD. This overlong segment is meant to be the story's climax, but serves best as a reminder of how boring the stoned seem to those who have not licked a stamp of their own. Matters go from bad to worse when one of the seven is accidentally killed and then buried in a shallow grave while the remaining six debate the advisability of going to the cops.

And wouldn't you know it, we never do find out what happens to those darned Druids.

Loaded is rated R for sexual situations, nudity, language and drug use.