HOUNDS OF LOVE (2016)

Australia. Direction: Ben Young. Production: Melissa Kelly / Factor 30 Films. Screenplay: Ben Young. Photography: Michael McDermott. Music: Dan Luscombe. Edition: Merlin Eden. Cast: Emma Booth, Ashleigh Cummings, Stephen Curry, Susie Porter, Damian de Montemas. Running time: 108 min

LANGUAGE: English / SUBTITLES: Spanish

A (heterosexual) couple kidnap young girls in one of those housing estates that are so quiet they send shivers down your spine. Director Ben Young (the one who’s been lassoed by Hollywood and is there working on a sci-fi thriller) follows all the rules of serial killer flicks while delighting us by subverting them with extremely high voltage mechanics of the eyes, ears and psych. Hounds of Love is also a total giving-in to motherly love. That instinct of the feverish bitch whose puppy’s been taken from her. Puppy which, in case you don’t know, is another bruised proclamation of female empowerment even when you’re tied to a bed. The movie showed at Venice. That’s where Ashleigh Cummings won the Feodora Award for Best Actress.