I saw this film in the early hours of the morning on British television, without any recommendation to watch it. It was one of the most necessary, and at the same time one of the most brutal films I have ever seen. I do not want to give away spoilers, but the opening credits of half naked men shouting warned me that this was not going to be entertainment, and the opening scenes of a young man being beaten almost to death made me want to turn the film off. I watched it and followed this young man's path to recovery, and along with his brother entering an elite school for further education. Here the real horror began. He had to prove his worth by being 'hazed' which is as I understood it a ritual of various tortures to become 'worthy' of being there. The tortures and the verbal abuse I will not describe, except to say that it was like watching pages of description out of De Sade. The most used of the verbal abuses was anti-gay, along with others used against women. This was the heart, if that is the appropriate word, of the film, along with physical humiliation and torture. Not since Pasolini's 'Salo' have I seen a film like this; another condemnation of human nature that was equally necessary to see and try to understand. The film, as film, is in my opinion equal to Pasolini both for its cinematic merits, and also for daring to go into the lowest depths of humanity. I expected a very violent climax, but instead I saw the young man trying to come to terms with what he has been through. I must just add that there was no disjunction between the opening violence, and the violence in the school. As far as I could see they completed the circle of extreme torture filtering down from the top of society to the most dispossessed in our society. Necessary films are actually quite few, but this in my opinion is one of them. A fully justified 10 for its content, and what it tells us about aspects of human behaviour we would rather turn away from.

Goat is a look at the dark side of fraternity initiations and is a long way away from the comedy antics of Animal House.

Brad (Ben Schnetzer) follows his popular brother Brett (Nick Jonas) to college. Right at the off he gets beaten up and mugged by some strangers at a party he gave a lift to.

However much worse is to come as the new students need to survive hell week and various rites of passage that is associated when it comes to joining college fraternities even if hazing has been outlawed.

These pledges are meant to be darkly comic but nauseating and the new students endure it for the prestige of joining a house and getting laid. Of course we know that tragedy will strike and brother Brett is already dubious about these frats and what they stand for and is worried about Brad.

James Franco makes a comedic guest appearance as an older former college frat who drops in to tell the new recruits that being a member of the house means joining a brotherhood who always watch your back.

Apart from the disturbing scenes of the various initiations and the fraternity members later falling apart when disaster strikes there is little story here. It is even not that interesting because it lacks the darkly comic humour that this film needed.

The Amazon plot is as follows: "After being assaulted, Brad Land (Ben Schnetzer) starts college ready to move on. His brother, Brett (Nick Jonas),is in a frat that Brad wants to join. Brett has concerns. While pledging, each new humiliating event threatens to destroy their relationship." The film is about the brother's relationship. Theme: Real brother, good. Frat brother, bad. Home is where the hurt is.

Brett helps Brad get closure. I felt I missed the whole point of the film as it ended without giving me any real closure, leaving me hanging out in a field of nightmares. Supposedly inspired by real events, i.e. hazing still goes on, even though everyone and their mum have rules against it.

Guide: F-word, sex, nudity.