Slow-building, still-shocking psycho-drama

David Sumner (Hoffmann) and his English wife, Amy (Susan George), move to a rural English village to escape urban life and so that David can get on with his work in peace. However, their peace gets disrupted by a group of thuggish locals who rape the wife and eventually besiege the house.

While it's hard at first to get over the British countryside setting, the film brilliantly creates a slow-building sense of dread as it's events increase in intensity and darkness. And as the couple get increasingly terrorised by the locals, their own morals and characters too begin to deteriorate, leading to a shocking and violent conclusion. The fact that it still shocks nearly 40 years after it was made is a testament to Sam Peckinpah's pioneering ability to portray onscreen violence.