Review of Hounds of Love (2016) by Pablo G — 24 Jun 2017

This is a deeply unpleasant film, likely to appeal to psychopaths who dream of torturing women (they will get a kick from this film, and perhaps some "how to" tips) and Tarantino lovers.

IMHO, films should be entertaining, or make us think, or ideally both. The entertaining aspects of this film are the strong acting of the three leads, the obvious competence of the direction and cinematography, gripping tension - and nothing else. Unless you find graphic violence against women entertaining.

What message are we meant to draw from this film? That psychopathic men can control women and enlist them into their schemes? We have known that since the Moors Murders in the 1960s. That people can be duped into putting themselves in others' power? I'm sure no-one has ever thought of that before. That captives can play their captors off against each other? A cliche of hostage films. That mothers who leave their husbands are somehow culpable if their daughters go missing?

This film lingers over the committing of violence against women, or its immediate after-effects. Lovers of "violence porn" will like the scenes of the captive woman being chained to a bed, threatened with a knife to the throat (several times), raped and strangled. (Strangling a young woman is graphically shown, but kicking a dog to death is out of shot!). Throw in some bleeding mouths and noses and lots of bruises, for good measure.

And all the working-class characters are portrayed as brutish, aggressive to each other and uninterested in helping others. Fortunately, the middle-class mother and (surgeon) father eventually come to the rescue.

No excuses for the Director, who also wrote the film. The publicity leaflet at the cinema says that the film is "loosely based on real life events", but the.

Director has been quoted as saying that it was inspired by his mother's crime novels. Get your stories straight!

Graphic and very nasty.