Hounds of Love, 2016

Genuinely harrowing and horrifically intense with extremely cruel intentions, “Hounds of Love” borrows from real life (can’t get stranger) either intentionally or otherwise; however unbeknownst to Ben Young, it seems as he takes us back in time to the Eighties, 1987 to be exact and makes us witness the crimes of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady of the ‘Moors Murders’ fame or infamy, complete to the ‘lady’ sticking her head out of the car window and trying to catch fish.

Young and his actors remain surprisingly restrained in their parts, which require much to be reigned in; a hint of a smile in the mirror after a shave; a look of doubt in the eyes of a certain unfortunate soul, an angular shot from the POV of a certain something that should not have a POV, a turn of the head in the wind. It is all remarkable film-making; tightly edited and brimming with disciplined performances (the subject demands that it be such); admirable in its hankering of the genre that doesn’t forgive much. Amidst all that, “Hounds of Love” manages to make a mark or leave a stain; enough for Young to get hired again and this time with a bigger budget to bring his twisted imagination to the screens once again.

Having said all that and being one of the people who have watched “Secuestrados, 2010, the question that lingers in this pilgrim’s head is simple, even simpler than Maggie and her Stockholm Syndrome.

Why? If Young had managed to out do “Kidnapped” (same film as mentioned above) then he would have had solid, solid reason. However after “Secuestrados” (the most effective home invasion/kidnap film ever made) there isn’t too much for anyone to stay and – in this case – watch, no matter how the stage has been set; effectively, highly uncomfortable or not.

I’m just being mean.

“Oh Maggie what did we do?”