I'm usually not really a fan of these slick, sick British crime thrillers that are invariably full of thuggery and profanity in equal measure, but HYENA turns out to be something special. It's a blacker-than-black tale of a thuggish cop (played well by the unknown Peter Ferdinando) who finds himself embroiled in a plot involving some very nasty characters indeed. The film opens with a shocking scene of violence and continues to shock from that point onward. It's bleak and nasty yet it somehow keeps you watching, almost like a gruesome car wreck on the motorway. Stephen Graham and the other cast members put in authentic performances and the film hits really hard in much the same way as an early Nicolas Winding Refn movie.