Director: Gerard Johnson
Cast: Peter Ferdinando, Stephen Graham, Neil Maskell
Certificate: 18
Running Time: 112 minutes
Special Features: Behind The Scenes / Cast & Crew Interviews / UK Theatrical Trailer
Reuniting Tony writer/director Gerard Johnson with his cousin and former leading man Peter Ferdinando, Hyena isn’t for the faint of heart. Taking inspiration from a variety of sources – including french cinema, Bad Lieutenant and a corrupt cop former acquaintance – Hyena takes the audience to some dark places and pulls very few punches along the way.
When two brutal Albanian brothers decide to muscle in on the London drug trade, Met drug squad officer DI Michael Logan (Peter Ferdinando) is powerless to stop them. With £100,000 invested in a cocaine route run by the outgoing Turkish gang, Michael realises he needs to work alongside the new boys if he’s ever going to get his money back. Unfortunately he’s been assigned to investigate his new partners alongside DI David Knight (Stephen Graham), a menacing superior officer who he has history with, whilst also trying to elude an Internal Affairs investigation into his team.
An unflinching tale of police corruption and a man struggling to escape the web of his own creation, Hyena features solid performances from it’s cast, particularly the likes of Stephen Graham, Neil Maskell and Elisa Lasowski who are all on great form. However it’s leading man Peter Ferdinando who steals the show as the film’s tragic anti-hero, managing to balance Michael’s morally reprehensible actions with a sense of desperation and regret that narrowly keeps the audience on side.
From the film’s opening nightclub raid through to it’s final shot, Hyena is visually distinctive with an often dream-like quality very different to those normally seen in the genre. Paired with the film’s electronic soundtrack (provided by The The), this visual style gives a bleak, at times sleazy, atmosphere to proceedings.
Due to the bold nature of Hyena, it can be difficult to engage with the film despite the aforementioned performances. The film’s narrative is clichéd at times and feels reasonably narrow and unsatisfying, whilst the characters are unlikeable and subjects covered are obviously discomforting. Johnson’s determination to display some almost unwatchable scenes of violence also hurts Hyena, with one wholly unnecessarily graphic rape scene almost detaching the audience completely from the plight of the film’s lead. All of this adds up to a flawed film that, whilst offering something interesting to the genre, can’t easily be described as memorable for the right reasons.
Punctuated with some truly shocking violence, Hyena is a well-acted bleak British thriller with an interesting style. Despite its detached characters and reasonably narrow narrative, there’s no doubt Hyena hits hard, though some may find it’s ending frustrating and certain scenes hard to stomach.
Hyena is available to buy on DVD now.
