Importantly it does this not through graphic shots of assault or abuse, but by the reactions of its protagonist to the threat of what may happen. It reminds us of what such terrible events would actually be like. That is a good thing: we made entertainment out of misery so often that I think it’s beneficial now and then to have a film like Hounds of Love.
There is a level of intensity operating here that makes everything seem a little too close to the bone, and a step too realistic. It is also a tremendously difficult film to watch. This may be a small independent production, but it has a technique you’d expect from a film with 10 times the budget and from a much more experienced directorial hand. Specific choices of camera angle and editing through the subsequent film emphasise its unsettling and confronting subject matter. The opening scene, depicting teenage girls playing netball in extreme slow motion, is creepy in the extreme.
Despite its modest production budget it has an extremely slick, hugely effective style to it. It is technically superb, well directed by Young, and very well performed by its cast. Western Australian director Ben Young makes his feature debut with Hounds of Love, a bleak, brutal thriller inspired by real-life events. Her only chance of survival – if there is one – is to try and play her emotionally unstable captors against one another. Trapped inside their home, she finds herself at imminent risk of rape and murder. On the way she is kidnapped by John White (Stephen Curry) and his wife Evelyn (Emma Booth). Teenager Vicki Maloney (Ashleigh Cummings) sneaks out of her mother’s house to go to a party.