“They always go back…”

This is a film that starts very much as it means to go on, with a young woman the target of an unprovoked attack in her bedroom – a vicious beating as she wakes, by what looks like an intruder. She staggers out of the house, diaphanous nightie flapping around her like the heroine/victim in a gothic novel, and hides in a car.

As day breaks she wakes and makes her way back into the house, to find her attacker still there, smiling: “Morning, sleep well?”

As openings go, it’s a powerful one. The viewer’s first thought is are they in some kind of mutual S&M relationship? But it’s then pretty clear that the husband (for that is what he is) may be all smiles, but she’s furious at what happened. As she should be.

The husband Teddy (Julian Glover) is completely unapologetic about it though, even berating her about the scars he caused: “For Christ’s sake, put some makeup on it!”

She’s Diane (Sarah Douglas), a model, and she has a photoshoot that day (hence the need to cover the scars). Her photographer Mark (Bruce Robinson – yes, that one. Wondering what “I” did after he walked away in the rain? Wonder no more) and his girlfriend/business partner Carrie (Suzanne Stone) know exactly what’s going on in her life, but seem to shrug it off as just one of those things “if she was black of course it wouldn’t show” says Carrie (who is black herself, before you ask).

Back home (yes, Diane goes back – and this won’t be the first time you’ll be shouting at the screen, let me tell you), she is greeted by Teddy fretting because he’s found an injured rabbit in the garden. In a remarkable about-turn in power dynamics, she picks up a spade and euthanises the suffering animal for him (done, by the look of it, by using the not-very-special effect of hitting a real rabbit with a real spade – let’s hope not, eh?).

But the power doesn’t stay with her for long – after a visit to a psychiatrist where the doctor suggests Teddy might be displaying “brute syndrome”, Teddy reacts badly and chases her out of the house again, with him this time wearing a dress, wig and full make-up.

Diane runs to Mark’s house and stays there overnight, returning home the next day (cue for you to start shouting at the TV again). Teddy has destroyed all her clothes and left a blow-up doll in the wardrobe to fall out on her like a dead body.

This is the final straw for Diane, who decided what she needs is a good seeing-to by Mark. Which is exactly what she gets. Twice. The second time involving a bit of “no-means-yes” in a barn.

Diane then meets a friend of Mark and Carrie’s, Millie (Jenny Twigge) who is another victim of a violent partner, covering her bruises with a pair of enormous sunglasses. Her husband turns up, once again not hiding what he’s up to or showing an ounce of remorse, and takes her home.

In case you hadn’t realised, all men are bastards in 1977.

Things continue to get darker from this point onwards, as the stories of the two “battered women” interweave as they quickly get even worse. Their husbands are real monsters, with people either ignoring their actions or refusing to believe Diane and Millie. Even as the attacks get more brutal. No real motivation is offered, and society appears not to care, with everything seeming to be weighted in favour of the men. Even a crowd-pleasing ass-wupping by the supremely confident Carrie does little to dispel the grim mood.

The Brute is not an easy watch, as it doesn’t offer much in the way of light (and nor should it). I’m assuming it was never meant to be a horror film, but there’s something about the lack of hope, the callousness of the crimes and the seemingly unstoppable baddies that make it pretty close to a Hammer film with all the metaphor stripped away.