Hounds of Love

It's December in Perth in 1987. Temperatures are hot. Teenager Vicki is sneaking out for the night to go to a party, and to escape from her recently-divorced mum. But hopping into a lift with Evelyn and John White turns out to be a mistake, as it becomes increasingly apparent they plan on torturing then killing her. Any attempt to escape is going to need luck and desperation.

Ben Young's debut feature is a tight, grim, masterpiece. The threat is established early, and the characters are clearly delineated. Stephen Curry is getting a lot of the reviewer's attention by playing way against type as the menacing John, but it's Emma Booth as the other half of the deadly couple who is the real centre of the piece - we get how desperate her circumstances are that she'd participate in something this utterly horrible. The violence stops short of being exploitative - we can infer what's happening or what's about to happen without grisly close ups - and the emphasis is as much on the internal pain and terror as it is the brutal fate that awaits Vicki. Ashleigh Cummings as Vicki plays right down the middle as a teen who is clearly reckless and foolish but just as clearly not in any way deserving of what she's fallen into. The title's connection to the film is perhaps a mite obscure - there are indeed two dogs in the film, and there is an examination of the menacing nature of love, but the two don't necessarily go together as centrally as the title might suggest. Still, this is in every way a solidly great Australian film full of tension and menace.