[Film Review] Hounded (2022)

Tommy Boulding’s Hounded (2022) is a fast-paced and violent appraisal of classism. Four friends make their living as thieves, stealing art from the homes of wealthy people and selling it to art dealers. On what’s supposed to be a regular in and out job - and of course, their final job together as a group - things take a turn, and not in their favor. They are trapped on the vast property of the family they were trying to rob and are hunted like foxes. Despite Fox hunting being outlawed for years, the wealthy family upholds the traditions of the hunt by hunting humans. 

The friend group is imperfect but lovable. There are two brothers, Leon (Nobuse Jnr) and his younger brother Chaz (Malachi Pullar-Latchman). Chaz is usually tasked with waiting in the getaway vehicle and driving but begs his way into more active involvement in the heist that goes wrong. Leon’s goal was only to steal enough to put Chaz through university, but Chaz is taken in by the lifestyle and wants to do more jobs. He is encouraged by the other two members of the group, Vix (Hannah Traylen) and Tod (Ross Coles), who don’t see any other option for themselves but thieving. Vix is outwardly tough and aggressive, and near the end of the film, she shares what made her that way. Tod is quieter and more reserved, as well as respectful of Christianity and its symbols. All four tease each other lovingly and treat one another like family. They are the heart of the film and viewers will fall in love with them. When they are injured, by bear traps or by hunting dogs, it’s brutal to watch, and the individuals' injuries are felt by the audience. 

The themes are clear: the haves versus the have-nots, how the upper class can look down on the working class, what people will do to survive, and how damaging it can be to follow tradition with no regard for the consequences of one’s own actions. The leader of the rich hunting family, Katherine Redwick (Samantha Bond), insults the thieves by saying there is no nobility in the working class, that they are just begging for handouts, but it doesn’t seem like she has any idea what being working class is actually like. She often refers to a code and follows certain rules of the hunt. She says to the group of thieves, before setting them to run, “This is not an execution, where's the sport in that?” She congratulates the youngest family member on his first hunt when there is a kill, even though he was not involved at all, clearly a metaphor for how people with wealth and privilege can take credit for things they had no hand in. 

Hounded brings to mind The Hunt (2020), with its us versus them mentality that leads to hunting humans, The Purge (2013), with the way it’s specifically people with less money and privilege being hunted, and The Hunger Games (2012), as rich people sit around and watch humans die for reasons they have justified to themselves. It’s bleaker than I expected, but in a respectful way that acknowledges the horror of the situation, and the payoff is satisfying.

RELATED ARTICLES

---

---

EXPLORE

---