Hounded

I thought I'd watch HOUNDED (2022) because the class subtext looked promising. It's a low budget British horror with a familiar plotline that reminded me of THE COLLECTOR and its ilk, about a quartet of thieves who break into a nice house only to find the tables turned on them by the owners. Before long the young 'uns find themselves pursued by a quarter of fox-hunting toffs with murder in mind...

This is one of those films that screams cheap throughout, with plenty of unconvincing moments and even a scene that openly rips off BREAKING BAD to poor effect. The most interesting part is the bad guys are played by familiar actors including Samantha Bond (Miss Moneypenny), James Faulkner (GAME OF THRONES), Nick Moran (a Guy Ritchie regular) and Larry Lamb (EASTENDERS). The gore is in short supply and the outdoor scenes strive for suspense but scream cliche instead.

Hounded was a surprisingly good film, I thought the acting was decent to the best it could be was not expecting samatha bond to be a villian but she plays the character in an unsettling way. She plays kathrine redwick, a wealthy person that larry lamb wants four teenagers to nick a dagger from, somehing they dont ask questions about. Chaz, vix, leon and and tod are down on their luck and chaz is tying to get his brother through college, but after getting caught in the ladies house the group finds themselves being chased by the four horsemen and dogs that know where they are going. Its pretty gory and grizzly in ways and you rout for the young ones. Overall i thought this was a pretty good thriller.

British thriller, produced in 2022, with the main theme of manhunt. One of the most common topics. A group breaks into a house for theft and is caught. Then they become the prey of hunters. Although it is not such a high-quality, high-tension movie, it is watched. It is not difficult to predict who will survive, which hunter will die first, and other events within the film. In these, just like in Hollywood movies, jokes can be made 2 minutes later, even if there is a deceased sibling or relative. The ending was not what I expected.

All the characters are repulsive. The most innocent is the first to be sacrificed.

There is no sex or nudity in the movie.

Is this film a master piece? Its not far off.

I genuinely didn't know what i was walking into when I started watching this. Had they the budget this would have REALLY worked as a TV Short. If they had a bigger budget again I think the whole premise has a market.

The concept is quite basic, the acting from the lead hunt woman is high quality! There was just something missing and I feel this was in the establishment of relating to the hunted.

I wish we had more time exploring the characters and getting attached to them prior to the set up. The film did try and the cinematography and audio landscaping carried us flawlessly through the adventure.

Give it a watch! :)

An attempted robbery of a grand family home goes wrong for four young thieves.

Firstly, it's nice to watch a film that has a ninety minute running time, they seem to be a rarity these days, the problem.....the last ninety minutes.

I liked the storyline of the movie, and I liked that it featured Samantha Bond and James Lance (even if I haven't fully recovered from his atrocious accent in The Canterville Ghost.) Both are a somewhat flat here unfortunately.

It's a story of revenge I guess, but it's just impossible to have sympathy with any of the characters, a set of thieves, or a set of vigilante aristocrats in riding gear. None of the characters feel real, they are caricatures and stereotypes.

It felt pretty cheaply made, I guess that it clearly didn't have much of a budget, but it's such an unimaginative production.

I don't think it's worthy of a 1 or 2 star rating, nor can I see anything to warrant it getting anything towards the higher end of the scale either, it's just too flawed.

4/10.