If there’s one thing Australian cinema can guarantee, that’s raw, hard-hitting movies that pack a punch. WOLF CREEK, THE LOVED ONES and WAKE IN FRIGHT all come to mind with their relenting outback tales of vicious and uncomfortable viewing. HOUNDS OF LOVE adds itself to that roster and excels at that malevolent shock that came before it.

 

From the opening credits, you know HOUNDS OF LOVE is going to be uncomfortable. An innocently youthful game of netball becomes a voyeuristic view that will make you hide behind a cushion and then the film ramps up the tension and grotesque nature of the film from that point forth. At the centre of the film are Eve (Emma Booth) and John (Stephen Curry) who abduct girls for his sexual gratification and dump their bodies. The two leads are instantly alien to any viewer who has the slightest of emotional intelligence, their killer nature may be through bad blood but their relationship is nothing less than compelling. Their sheer abjection to human compassion is only outweighed by their abusive love for each other, something their latest victim, Vicki (Ashleigh Cummings) will play to her survival.

 

HOUNDS OF LOVE is hard to watch and even harder to forget but through its trio of characters is a must watch. Ben Young effectively captures a balance between horror and human drama and in Vicki’s fight for survival, is not afraid to shed blood.

 

In principle, this unflinching take on survival horror feels all the more worse for its depths in reality. The raw nature of Young’s film makes every scene feel like a soap opera rather than a piece of cinema and as the stakes get higher, so do does the gut crunching agony of the lives affected by Eve and John’s crimes.

 

While the title characters won’t be the new Freddy and Jason, they are much worse and that’s what makes this such a gripping horror film, one that is grounded in reality and one that refuses to batten down the hatches at the first sight of discomfort. This film works because of the chemistry between Cummings, Booth and Curry and it’s as heart wrenching as it is stomach churning. Bold, brave and it won't please all but if you can dare to take in the gruesome hardship set about by HOUNDS OF LOVE, you will not be left disappointed.