Highly controversial when it was released and infact still remains banned in the UK where it was considered excessively violent though people consider the one rape scene as the real reason for its ban.

It is by no means too strong by todays standards and no doubt now that the British Board of Censors has finally rid itself of the rather ninnyish James Ferman, the ban should soon be lifted as have similar bans on The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Straw Dogs follows a rather mismatched young couple, an american and a brit who set up home in the rural reaches of Cornwall in a place seemingly inhabited by people mutated through generations of close intermarrying.

Tensions arise between the newlyweds and the most unwelcoming locals until things get horribly out of hand with the brutal rape of the young wife. The fact that Susan George is apparently consenting to the act became the crux of all the controversy, its a scene that would have feminists absolutely enraged, this suggestion that the rape is actually being enjoyed by the victim.

The film then treads horror territory as the couple are beseiged and then muster up their own rescources to survive. Its pretty tense stuff and enjoyable stuff really, very well acted and directed. More frightening and effective then most horror movies, in fact this could well qualify as a horror movie of sorts, if one stretches the genre just a little.