Kurzel kept Snowtown very close to the truth of Bunting and his accomplices, and their bone-chilling acts between 19. Hounds of Love, in similar fashion, opens the gates of hell in a suburban neighbourhood (this time in Young’s home state of Western Australia, as opposed to the titular South Australian location in Snowtown). That film was about John Bunting’s real-life killing spree – affectionately known as the “bodies in barrels” murders. The Babadook, for example, is actually about grief, not an actual monster. Geddit?ĭon’t be surprised if Hounds of Love reminds you of Justin Kurzel’s traumatising masterpiece Snowtown. Hounds of Love fits into a new wave of modern “horror” films that exploit the tropes of the genre to deliver a message.
#HOUNDS OF LOVE RAPE MOVIE#
Herein lies the central problem with Ben Young’s visually impressive debut movie – the arm wrestle between reality and literary contrivance.
#HOUNDS OF LOVE RAPE SERIAL#
Despite being a serial killer, Evelyn’s also a victim. The Whites are far from an even partnership. If you ignore the couple’s nightmarish legacy of rape and murder, behind the curtain of mayhem is an abusive relationship. She’s not about to leave any time soon.ĭespite being bound and gagged, Vicki quickly works out that all is not well in the White household. When Vicki sneaks out after dark to attend a party, John and Evelyn’s bomb car rolls from the night like a beaten-up tiger shark. The couple coax Vicki back to their house with the promise of cheap pot. It doesn’t take a thriller aficionado to deduce that Vicki’s path is soon going to cross with the Whites. Her parents Maggie and Trevor (Susie Porter and Damian de Montemas) are getting a divorce, so Vicki is rebelling. She’d rather cheat on her exams and hook up with her boyfriend Jason (Harrison Gilbertson) than ace those tests.
We then meet Vicki Maloney (Ashleigh Cummings) – your typical teenager. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.Ī quick montage of handcuffed wrists, sex toys, bloodied tissues, an unassuming suburban brick home and an apparently relaxed John driving into the forest with a body in his trunk tells us that the Whites are two seasoned – and especially twisted – predators. “You’ll cook out there,” Evelyn casually points out. Moments later a teenage girl is walking home from high school in scorching heat and she accepts a ride with the apparently easy-going couple. We’re inside the car of Hounds of Love‘s two star-crossed psychopaths, John and Evelyn White (Stephen Curry and Emma Booth).
It’s the best opening to a movie so far this year.īut it’s not just the male gaze into which we’ve been plunged.
#HOUNDS OF LOVE RAPE FULL#
A sweaty netball game is in full flight and it appears at the edge of frame, soon turning into close-ups of teenage girls, shorts skirts and contorting young flesh floating through the air as if the male gaze has become a viscous solution and they are suspended within it. BY NICK MILLIGANĪ methodical and glacial slow tracking shot opens the debut film of Australian writer-director Ben Young. IN BEN YOUNG’S CHILLING, AMBITIOUS AND IMPRESSIVE DEBUT, HOUNDS OF LOVE, VICTIMS COME IN ALL FORMS.
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