SPOILER ...
At the beginning why does the hound wait until after Sir Hugo has attacked and done his dastardly deed to the young woman? Assuming the dog was avenging her brutal death wouldn't it make sense for it to charge Sir Hugo BEFORE he grabbed her or while they were strugging? Or perhaps the hound was en route and did not arrive at the scene until it was too late and thus took retribution on Hugo.
The prologue seems to suggest that the hound is sort of "summoned" forth by Hugo's violent act of murdering the woman, which is why it doesn't appear and attack him until after he has already committed the deed. But since we know there isn't really a hound from hell, and the Baskerville legend is precisely that, we shouldn't take everything we see in this prologue at face value, especially as it's being read from the family legend which spices everything up.
I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?
The hound let out a howl first when Sir Hugo was riding up to the abbey and the sound caused the pack of dogs to retreat. It is unclear how the howl of one hound could frighten a pack of what looked like maybe a hundred dogs. And then the horse balked a short distance after. If the hound had been summoned by Hugo's violent act I wonder what the pack of dogs or the horse would have had to fear, presumably the hound would not have harmed them unless they tried to intervene and protect Hugo. It would seem the hound would try to save the young maiden and attack Hugo before he got to her.
shareMaybe the howl was merely an omen of ill will before the dog's actual appearance, considering Hugo's intent?
I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?
Another thing was that several of his friends advised against Sir Hugo going after the girl and that he musn't do this. Were they all aware or had heard about an evil hound lurking around, perhaps they had heard earlier howls.
shareOr they realized his intentions and they had their limits...
I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?
It is implied that the curse started with Sir Hugo and befell every Baskerville heir for the previous century up to Sir Charles but there were no specifics mentioned. Is it implied that Hugo's monstrous and dastardly deed cursed every succeeding generation to the same horrible fate? We know Stapleton used the legend for his own purposes in arranging for Sir Charles' death and the attempted murder of Sir Henry but what would explain all the previous Baskervilles' fate in the century or so in between. Also it would seem that Cecile could have married Sir Henry and inherited the estate after Sir Henry's death and considering the Baskerville's inherited heart conditon that could have shortened his life so it wouldn't be necessary for Stapleton to go through all this trouble since his daughter through marriage to Henry would eventually get it anyway unless it was pure greed and not wanting to wait.
shareOr they realized his intentions and they had their limits...
I don't think the hound was there to avenge or prevent her death, or punish him specifically for what he did. Though it's all kind of vague. In the book it's more like a pact with the devil type thing, or just the forces of evil. He says he'll give himself to the "powers of evil" if he can hunt her down. He does catch up to her, but only after she had fallen dead from fatigue and fear, at which point the hound (which had been silently chasing him through the moors the whole time) caught up to Hugo as he reached her and killed him. As is usually the case in literary/film deals with the devil, he got what he wanted but not how he had imagined it.
In the film it's different, he says "May the hounds of hell take me if I can't hunt her down". Presumably it wasn't a similar "deal" with evil, because he did hunt her down. Maybe just making such a bold claim the powers of evil thought "Who does this clown think he is? We're going to send the hounds on you regardless". And being the forces of evil, they don't give a crap about some girl.
Who knows, it was (as has been said) an old legend with little to no truth to it. But just for the sake of the narrative of the film, I think it was just his audacity to even make some sort of statement like that about the hounds of hell, combined with the fact he was a d-bag, which brought the supposed curse on him.
"Dan Marino should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. Would you like a cookie son?"