Hounds of Love

What is it about Australian filmmakers and down-and-dirty, no-holds-barred crime dramas? Let's not figure out why they're so good at them and simply enjoy.

An ugly film whose ambitions are never matched by its creators' limited abilities.

This movie grabs you by the throat and squeezes.

The central performances are riveting ... but the torture Young depicts, even only if it's suggestive rather than blatant, can be difficult to digest over the course of almost two long hours.

What makes the torment worth enduring is the trio of ferocious performances at its center, bare and ugly and unvarnished.

It's a tense, sharply assembled debut feature from Ben Young. Its main problem, though, is that it never answers a basic question: Why are we watching this?

Women are held prisoner and other women must free them. And sometimes, it's impossible to watch.

It's a rough film, but an insightful one that offers a glimpse into the abyss not soon forgotten.

Among the fine cast, Booth stands out as the confused, on-edge Evelyn.

Young is more interested in the abused than the abuser, and the result is an ambitious, tough-to-swallow drama fuelled by fearless performances and extraordinary empathy.

Hounds of Love is a sinister, psychologically screwy thriller that stands on its own merits, radiating a dreamy, deviant vision of female subjugation, and empowerment.

Ben Young's abduction horror says more by showing less.

The snail's-pace horizontal pans, under-the-flight-path score, and other arthouse affectations had collided with the overall unlikeability of the major characters violently enough to make me consider jumping ship.

Once this thing starts bouncing around your brain, good luck getting it out.

While Hounds Of Love is certainly an acquired taste, it's also a rare film that will ruminate and still terrify you days after you've seen it.

Hounds of Love is an intelligent piece of grounded horror, and an outstanding debut film.