Review: Hounds of Love

There is an assured hand behind the film Hounds of Love. Ben Young, who also wrote the film, seems to have cracked a new approach to an old type of thriller. Here is a film that avoids putting the sexual abuse and physical violence on screen in order to focus on the characters who deliver and receive such brutality.

In plot alone, Hounds of Love could easily be something one would find on Lifetime. David and Catherine Birnie, a couple who murdered four women in Western Australia in the 1980s, provide the inspiration for the story of John and Evelyn White. They kidnap a young teen, Vicki Maloney, at the beginning of the film and then we wait to see if she can escape or not. In many hands, this material would exploit the situation for thrills. Director Young has a lot more on his mind and wisely keeps the focus on Vicki's resourceful mind and how she may save herself. The film also makes sure we understand the details of the White's toxic and perverse relationship. In this way, the film forms a sort of triangle of characters, all of whom we understand deeply.

Stephen Curry play John White and his performance is chilling. He is small figured man and Young continually shows us how he tries to dominate women in his world in order to feel bigger.  While this may sound like a familiar diagnosis for a sexual predator, Curry's performance adds so much more to the portrayal. We understand the things that make him feel big and small. Emma Booth plays Evelyn White as a fascinating mixture of damaged lover, co-conspirator and victim. Ashleigh Cummings plays the captive Vicki. Her mind always feels like it is thinking of ways to get out of this nightmare. She slowly sees the cracks in the dynamics between John and Evelyn and uses her attentiveness to start to shift the vile love triangle in the film. 

Hounds of Love is a patient film that takes time to develop its characters rather than focus on thrilling its audience at every moment. This attention to character development is rare in a film like this. Horror films featuring captive women being raped often fall under exploitation but Hounds of Love avoids this label by rooting the audience in the headspace of the captive female rather than putting us in the point of view of the perpetrator. 

The three central performances make up the best acting ensemble of the year so far. All three actors commit to making monsters and victims into real people. Director Young restrains from wallowing in the sexual violence but still creates a great degree of suspense. The last 20 minutes of Hounds of Love stands among the most tense and nerve-wracking climaxes in the genre. This is because Young and his ensemble have created characters we understand and a few we care deeply about.

Realistic but stylistic at times, Hounds of Love is an assured debut feature film. It is not an easy watch but not because of the blood or gore on screen. There is actually very little. It is because of the actors and focus on character that the film becomes a harrowing, hard-to-shake experience. The film disturbs to core but not in a cheap way. It earns its lasting place in your nightmares. 

4.5/5