Hounds of Love. (18.)
Directed by Ben Young.
Starring Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry, Susie Porter, Damian de Montemas, Harrison Gilbertson. 108 mins.
They're coming, but not in the trees. These Hounds of Love are ordinary people, living ordinary lives who prove capable of extraordinary depravity. In 1987, John and Evelyn White (Curry, Booth) prowl the streets of Perth looking for young girls to abduct and eventually murder. They have ideas above their station.
Young's debut is an exploitation film, a young girl in peril film, that wants to rise above its circumstances. Despite the 18 certificate, there is no graphic violence and just about everything happens off screen. The film is determined not to sensationalise the murderous couple; to present them as dysfunctional downmarket dullards. The film is strong on the sense of place, and the Whites' position in the margins of the community. It's also strong on contrasting the plight of their captive (Cummings) and the normal life going on all around them. Young has a few clever shots of extreme slow motion where the speed of the action in the frame jars with the speed of the movement of the camera going past.
Which is all admirable in its way but so much is left to the imagination, left unshown, I think you begin to resent what remains to be shown, which is a whole bunch of acting, a few artfully shot tableaux of suburban life and a hell of a lot of screaming. Ultimately, it's the banality of the banality of evil.
Directed by Ben Young.
Starring Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry, Susie Porter, Damian de Montemas, Harrison Gilbertson. 108 mins.
They're coming, but not in the trees. These Hounds of Love are ordinary people, living ordinary lives who prove capable of extraordinary depravity. In 1987, John and Evelyn White (Curry, Booth) prowl the streets of Perth looking for young girls to abduct and eventually murder. They have ideas above their station.
Young's debut is an exploitation film, a young girl in peril film, that wants to rise above its circumstances. Despite the 18 certificate, there is no graphic violence and just about everything happens off screen. The film is determined not to sensationalise the murderous couple; to present them as dysfunctional downmarket dullards. The film is strong on the sense of place, and the Whites' position in the margins of the community. It's also strong on contrasting the plight of their captive (Cummings) and the normal life going on all around them. Young has a few clever shots of extreme slow motion where the speed of the action in the frame jars with the speed of the movement of the camera going past.
Which is all admirable in its way but so much is left to the imagination, left unshown, I think you begin to resent what remains to be shown, which is a whole bunch of acting, a few artfully shot tableaux of suburban life and a hell of a lot of screaming. Ultimately, it's the banality of the banality of evil.
