"Hyena" is a punishingly bleak, violent trudge through a London underworld of sex traffickers, drug dealers, rapists, gangsters, and police who are indiscernible from them. It's the kind of thing that makes you feel dirty. It reminded me a little of that Aussie flick, "Snowtown", except that had a reason for existing, other than just the dubious pleasure of wallowing in the mire.
Its protagonist is a crooked cop who cooperates, a little too helpfully, with gangsters involved in the traffic of sex slaves from the Balkans. At some point he may decide to redeem himself - or does he? It could be that that's just a cliché for movies like this, so we expect it, a la "Bad Lieutenant". He does try to help one of the sex slaves escape, but for the rest of the movie he is really just acting in his own interest.
The movie doesn't bring you close enough to the character to make him interesting like in that movie, though, or other gritty character studies like "Pusher", or of course, the daddy of them all, "Taxi Driver". He's just another scum bag. If there is goodness in him, that makes him worse than the others. They don't know any better.
The movie is continually violent and shocking, with dismemberments, decapitated heads, graphic rapes. It doesn't feel realistic or necessary. This movie is like a deliberately sick carnival ride going from one grotesque exhibition to the next. When it's over, the challenge is answered and you can get on with your day. It might shock you while it's happening but you won't be thinking about it for long afterwards.
Its protagonist is a crooked cop who cooperates, a little too helpfully, with gangsters involved in the traffic of sex slaves from the Balkans. At some point he may decide to redeem himself - or does he? It could be that that's just a cliché for movies like this, so we expect it, a la "Bad Lieutenant". He does try to help one of the sex slaves escape, but for the rest of the movie he is really just acting in his own interest.
The movie doesn't bring you close enough to the character to make him interesting like in that movie, though, or other gritty character studies like "Pusher", or of course, the daddy of them all, "Taxi Driver". He's just another scum bag. If there is goodness in him, that makes him worse than the others. They don't know any better.
The movie is continually violent and shocking, with dismemberments, decapitated heads, graphic rapes. It doesn't feel realistic or necessary. This movie is like a deliberately sick carnival ride going from one grotesque exhibition to the next. When it's over, the challenge is answered and you can get on with your day. It might shock you while it's happening but you won't be thinking about it for long afterwards.