Hounds of Love

Set in suburban Perth in 1987, Hounds of Love centres on seventeen-year-old Vicki Maloney, who is abducted from her street by John and Evelyn White, a married couple who lure her into their home and hold her captive. Vicki has been drifting away from her parents, Trevor and Maggie, and it is after slipping out to attend a party that she falls into the couple's hands. Once confined, she studies the tense relationship between the two of them and comes to believe that her only way out is to set husband and wife against each other, exploiting the cracks in their bond before they close.

The film is the first feature directed by Ben Young, who also wrote the screenplay; Melissa Kelly produced it for Factor 30 Films, and it runs 108 minutes. Ashleigh Cummings plays Vicki, with Emma Booth and Stephen Curry as Evelyn and John White, Susie Porter and Damian de Montemas as her parents, and Harrison Gilbertson as Jason Farris. It belongs to the crime, drama and horror genres, and its Australian suburban setting and period detail give the abduction story a domestic, ordinary backdrop. Young went on to direct Extinction and Devil's Peak after this debut.

On IMDb the film holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 14,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.1 from roughly 381 votes, a narrower sample. A critics' rating of 7.4 from about 100 reviews places it noticeably above both audience scores, suggesting that reviewers responded to the film more strongly than general viewers did.