Hounds of Love
By Nathan J. Mullally
“It’s not about what does happen, it’s about what can happen”. Perth music video director Ben Young’s feature directorial debut Hounds of Love opens nationwide across Australia on June 1st, and you can be sure you’ll always be on the edge of your seat for this one. And please don’t mistake it for a sweet romantic comedy like many people did at the Venice Film Festival…it’s a terrifyingly realistic crime thriller!
Set in Perth in 1987, teenage girl Vicki (played by rising star Ashley Cummings) in the middle of an ugly divorce between her parents sneaks away one night to a party, where she encounters married couple John (The Castle’s Stephen Curry) and Evelyn White (Perth’s very own Emma Boothe), where they lure her back to their home where she becomes their prisoner. Realising her chances of escape are very slim, she senses friction in the couple’s relationship, and decides she must turn them against each other in order to survive.
It starts out looking and feeling like a typical crime TV documentary, but slowly but surely the true nature of the film and the gripping plot starts to unwind in a way that will shock, disturb, but also educate and entertain viewers, and Young’s 1980s visuals and atmosphere really make the film enjoyable to watch as a low budget film, yet feeling the professionalism and grandeur of a Hollywood crime film (I’m thinking David Fincher’s Zodiac). Like the director even said himself, making the film as a period piece gave him an excuse to use some great songs from the 80’s that really move the emotions and the flow of the story.
What is most haunting and most effective about Young’s abduction thriller is the strange absence of any actual depictions of sexually violent scenes, rather it is all implied for the audience who can imagine it in their own minds (similar to want Tarantino did in Reservoir Dogs). I’m going to be honest – it’s brutal. The whole film is emotionally and psychologically draining, but it does have a very satisfying final sequence.
Besides the superbly written screenplay (written by Ben Young himself!), the most powerful aspect of the film is the performances, courtesy of Curry, Boothe and Cummings. The transformations that the actors went through both physically and mentally to become the deranged the killer couple is a testament to the true talent within Western Australia’s local film and television industry, where actors, actresses, directors and production crews can put their skills to use in a spectacular collaborative effort even with limited funds available (a budget of about $1.3 million), and they can make something really fantastic.
It is a refreshing look at Australian cinema that has a future that is looking brighter and brighter with the release of this film, and the international critics are loving it! Writer/director Ben Young is definitely going places, and his first stop is in on location Serbia shooting the blockbuster sci-fi drama film Extinction, set for release next year.