"Hounddog"

Rated R for a disturbing sexual assault of a young girl, and brief sexuality.

I have seen some horrible movies in my time. It's not hard when you consider that my career has been mostly spent covering horror and science fiction titles, and you can be pretty sure that I have seen some horrible things in my time. I have seen human eyes cut and punctured. I have seen scenes of torture so horrifying that even war crimes tribunals might well vomit in anguish if they got footage of it.

I have seen Ulli Lommel movies.

But none of this was sufficient preparation for a little film from the Empire Film Group called Hounddog. Perhaps I am just a prude, but watching a ten year old girl (I'm guessing Dakota Fanning is playing a ten year old girl) require an eight year old boy to expose himself in exchange for a kiss is at least approaching a line of decency that I'd rather not cross. The term "pedophile bait" occurs to me, but this was not to be the end of the things that made me cringe.

Oh, no... that particular honor was to be reserved for partially off camera footage of Dakota Fanning being raped.

The fact that I had to say I either of those things in an everyday movie review is considerable cause for alarm.

And as if it were possible, things will somehow managed to only get worse after Dakota Fanning's on camera rape. Why, you ask? The answer is as simple as it is horrifying: she will be forced to rebuild her life in a truly "heroic" fashion through the power of the blues.

Yes, you read that right: a young rape victim is to reassert herself and her place in the world by singing.

This somehow manages to be both trite and insulting -- are we seriously supposed to believe that a rape victim can somehow magically be healed by singing an Elvis song in blues fashion? Spare me your onslaught of garbage about metaphors and other pointlessnesses--the fact remains that this is what is presented and thus that this is what we are to believe.

I find it irresponsible in the extreme that anyone could present such ludicrousity in film and expect the audience to hail it as some kind of sensitive and thoughtful piece.

And indeed, I am agreed with roundly; only today I read about AMC theaters pulling the new movie from over 5,000 theaters because of the rape scene. Director Kampmeier, meanwhile, attempts to gain a soap box perspective by claiming she feels a lot of compassion toward these people that are so angry about the film.

Honey, you just made me watch a 10-year-old girl get raped on film. Don't preach to me about compassion.

All in all, Hounddog is both a waste of time and plastic. Avoid it at all costs. Do not allow yourself to be snowed by terms like brilliantly poignant and societies or progression of women, and instead remember that this is an idiotic film that expects you to believe that all you have to do is find the mystic song in your heart to heal your self of even the most horrible atrocities.

I only wish mine could be healed so simply after wasting ninety minutes on this trash.

Hound Dog
zero stars

Directed by Deborah Kampmeier
Written by Deborah Kampmeier
Starring Oliver Clayton-Luce, Dakota Fanning, Isabelle Fuhrman, Cody Hanford
Produced by Raye Dowell
R
92 mins
2008

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