Uncovering Curiosities: Ben Young’s HOUNDS OF LOVE
Maybe don’t think about the Kate Bush song. Having said that, 2016’s Hounds Of Love is a dark and violent Antipodean thriller that will probably send you Running Up That Hill, Breathing heavily and maybe screaming Babooshka! This pic wasn’t made for The Man With The Child In His Eyes – but Don’t Give Up – this Hammer Horror, will take you to new, albeit Wuthering Heights. You’ll have a Deeper Understanding of the genre and when it ends you’ll definitely say WOW.
Okay, Ben Young’s film is the type of thriller that Australia excels at – a dark twisted mood piece set within the confines of a normal reality. Maybe it’s the vast isolation of the geography or the fact the nation was built by convicts, but Australian cinema has always been ingrained with the darkness of humanity – from Mad Max through Wolf Creek to Animal Kingdom, the wizardry of OZ has always lingered in the dark and violence recesses of the mind.
Hounds Of Love sees Stephen Curry and Emma Booth as a serial killing husband and wife duo who kidnap young women before torturing and murdering them. It looks like business as usual for the couple when the pick up Ashleigh Cummings’ Vicki, a teenager who has fallen out with her single parent mother. Picked up on her way to a party by the seemingly friendly couple, the teenager uses her skill at pushing adults to the edge to her advantage and she manages to find the cracks in the couple’s relationship which might just lead to her freedom. Maybe.
Nights In White Satin will never be the same again after you’ve watched this dark thriller. Ben Young’s film put you on edge from the opening and make you feel uncomfortable for quite a while after the credits roll. This isn’t populist cinema – this is visceral horror set within the well known confines of suburbia. The scariest thing about Hounds Of Love is that it’s probably happening in cities across the globe.
Actors Stephen Curry, Emma Booth and Ashleigh Cummings all deliver impressive performances but the star here is director Ben Young. He’s created a film that’s a knife-edge drama that will push its viewers to the limit. It’s not entertaining, but sometimes cinema needs to make you to aware of the evil that works in the shadows – especially the shadows which linger in the dark corners of your own streets and cities. Dark but fascinating, Hounds of Love is a film which is unlike anything else you’ll see this summer.
