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'Teenager Vicki Maloney is abducted by sinister couple John and Evelyn White and quickly realises that she must drive a wedge between them if she is to survive. ' (Source: Screen Australia website)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Dangerous Locations : The Missing Person in Australian Cinema
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Screen Education , no. 95 2019; (p. 64-71) -
Stranded in Suburbia : Women’s Violence in Australian Cinema
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , May no. 64 2019;Australian cinema has a long history of depicting violent men: from Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971), Mad Dog Morgan (Philippe Mora, 1976) and Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) in the 1970s, Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992), Blackrock (Steven Vidler, 1997) and The Boys (Rowan Woods, 1998) in the 1990s, to Wolf Creek (Greg McLean, 2005) and Snowtown (Justin Kurzel, 2011) in the 2000s. Throughout this period, Australian cinema has paid exclusive attention to men’s violence: vigilantes, petty criminals and troubled young men in the suburbs. Felicity Holland and Jane O’Sullivan declare that these ‘lethal larrikin’ films are in discussion with concepts of Australian masculinity, ‘questioning and subverting a number of almost iconic assumptions about power, powerlessness, and violence in Australian masculine culture’ (79). In recent years, however, there has been a small but impactful cluster of films that show women acting violently, too. Suburban Mayhem (Paul Goldman, 2006), Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2011) and Hounds of Love (Ben Young, 2016) all contain female characters who exhibit intensely violent behaviour, committing (or conspiring to commit) acts of homicide and murder. While critics have examined men’s brutality extensively, Australian women’s aggression has not been considered in the same way (Butterss; Heller-Nicholas; Holland and O’Sullivan; O’Brien; Villella). Female violence in Australian cinema is a new and unanswered question. (Introduction)
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Ben Young : Hounded to Extinction
Travis Johnson
(interviewer),
2017
single work
interview
— Appears in: FilmInk , 23 June 2017; -
Lowlife in the Suburbs
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , June no. 134 2017; (p. 52-53)'Like the majority of Australians, I grew up in the suburbs - the southern suburbs of Sydney, to be precise; I was a Kogarah boy. I had no idea, at the time, that I was inhabiting a dismal purgatory, a haven for provincial smallmindedness, hypocritical piety and low-level kink, from which I could either escape (to the city or, better, overseas) or face the slow extinction of my finer feelings... How could I know? I’d read none of the books, seen none of the movies that might foster this belief. I don’t believe the phrase “the Australian ugliness” was ever uttered, either at my primary school or in my parents’ house. Only later, better read and more aware, did it occur to me that I was supposed to despise the things I had cherished. And then, obediently, I did.' (Introduction)
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Well-crafted Torture Tale
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 June 2017; (p. 14) 'First things first. Hounds of Love, a devilishly potent new Australian film from first-time writer-director Ben Young, is a little masterpiece of horror. It is most definitely not for the squeamish — not that Young wallows in gore, because in fact he is reasonably discreet in depicting the events that unfold. Nevertheless his achievement is to create an environment that is totally, devastatingly believable, and that makes what happens even more confronting than it might otherwise have been.' (Introduction)
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Hounds in Festival Hunt
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 19 November 2016; 'Among the 82 films screening at this year’s Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, 31 Australian premieres are led by crime thriller Hounds of Love. ...' -
Hounds of Love Review – Savagely Intense Australian Horror Is the Scariest Film of the Year
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 23 May 2017; 'In a directorial debut comparable to The Babadook or Snowtown, the foul and fetid psychological energy clings like an unshakeable dream.' -
Local Treasures : 2017's Most Anticipated Aussie Films
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 22 December 2016; -
Well-crafted Torture Tale
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 June 2017; (p. 14) 'First things first. Hounds of Love, a devilishly potent new Australian film from first-time writer-director Ben Young, is a little masterpiece of horror. It is most definitely not for the squeamish — not that Young wallows in gore, because in fact he is reasonably discreet in depicting the events that unfold. Nevertheless his achievement is to create an environment that is totally, devastatingly believable, and that makes what happens even more confronting than it might otherwise have been.' (Introduction) -
Lowlife in the Suburbs
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , June no. 134 2017; (p. 52-53)'Like the majority of Australians, I grew up in the suburbs - the southern suburbs of Sydney, to be precise; I was a Kogarah boy. I had no idea, at the time, that I was inhabiting a dismal purgatory, a haven for provincial smallmindedness, hypocritical piety and low-level kink, from which I could either escape (to the city or, better, overseas) or face the slow extinction of my finer feelings... How could I know? I’d read none of the books, seen none of the movies that might foster this belief. I don’t believe the phrase “the Australian ugliness” was ever uttered, either at my primary school or in my parents’ house. Only later, better read and more aware, did it occur to me that I was supposed to despise the things I had cherished. And then, obediently, I did.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2017 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Screenplay - Original or Adapted
- 2017 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Director
- 2017 nominated Film Critics Circle of Australia — Best Film
- 2017 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards — Best Original Screenplay
- 2017 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards — Best Film
- Perth, Western Australia,
- ca. 1985