HUNTER HUNTER Review – A Backwoods Battle For Survival Is One Of The Best Horror Films Of The Year
Drew Tinnin
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Directed by Shawn Linden
Written by Shawn Linden
Starring Camille Sullivan, Devon Sawa, Nick Stahl, Summer H. Howell, Gabriel Daniels
Upending expectations at every turn, Shawn Linden’s survivalist horror tale Hunter Hunter never feels unbalanced even though, as a viewer, you may never feel like you’re on even footing. Although everything that transpires occurs over only a few days, the story unfolding actually feels like a ghastly campfire story that’s been passed down from generation to generation. But Hunter Hunter abandons the formula of classic folklore in favor of a much more gruesome fable about the evils of man, the loss of tradition, and the uncontrollable wrath of a desperate family. In doing so, one of the best horror films of the year comes barreling out of the woods, intent on bewildering its audience seemingly unconcerned with leaving a lot of questions unanswered.
Choosing to fend for themselves to keep their way of life from disappearing, a small family of fur trappers are walking the line between bounty and starvation – so goes the hunter’s life. The patriarch, Joseph (Sawa), has a single-minded determination to keep his capable wife Anne (Sullivan) and abiding daughter Renee (Howell) alive and well out in the middle of the wilderness even though they’re beginning to long for an easier life in Small Town, USA. Making matters worse, a rogue wolf returns to terrorize them and essentially starve them out. Joseph has no choice but to go on the offensive and become the hunter instead of the hunted. As day turns into night, Joseph never returns leaving Anne and Renee to fend for themselves and eventually turn to the sheriff’s office for help.
This is when Hunter Hunter takes a turn: you’re not actually going to be watching a Herman Melville-esque quest of man versus nature, although that movie would already be compelling. An expert tracker, Joseph is led to a chilling discovery that suddenly changes the playing field. Now alone, Anne and her daughter Renee become the new target as they match wits with the wolf and the woods. When a third party enters the fray – a mysterious but harmless man named Lou (Stahl) – Hunter Hunter begins to take another shape. That final, unexpected direction is the main reason to camp out and read along with Shawn Linden’s roller coaster script. What it leads to should make horror fans understand why this is one of the best horror films of the year.
Devon Sawa and Nick Stahl’s characters, Joe and Lou, are two sides of the same coin: one is order and the other is chaos. Half of Hunter Hunter shows the established order of a dying way of life; the other half introduces this family to the terrifying unknown. Sawa, as a chain-smoking authoritarian is the very definition of the rugged individual and he plays Lou so convincingly that, once again, you’d be fine watching him star in “Jaws in the Woods” all by himself. Stahl shows the two sides that he’s grown to play so well, the approachable nice guy and the man whose stare lingers just a little too long.
They both make their mark but when the story shifts its focus to Anne as the unshakable matriarch, Camille Sullivan puts her posts in the ground and exclaims this is my movie. You’re going to remember Anne and Renee and what happens to them.
Any horror movie usually has some police presence, and once a ranger named Barthes (played beautifully by Gabriel Daniels) starts to grow concerned for the well-being of Anne and her daughter, another piece of wood gets thrown on the fire adding some much needed sparks. Barthes’ involvement adds a tinge of Fargo inspired detective work where, suddenly, an unassuming cop comes across something they couldn’t possibly imagine. That’s when the sinking feeling starts to creep in as the dark parable of Hunter Hunter begins rolling down the hill of impending doom.
Honestly, if the ending wasn’t so powerful, the questions raised by so many twists and turns would have probably uprooted Linden’s direction and been too much for the script to overcome. With most stories, all of these elements should come back around and offer some kind of payoff. But Linden and company want to put across the feeling of being caught in a trap and that’s the structure of the entire movie, really.
Because there are so many unanswered questions coupled with one of the most graphic and cathartic horror endings in recent memory, this is exactly the kind of film you can’t wait to talk about, details and all. To provide a tiny clue, Hunter Hunter is a tale of murder and dust; it’s an endurance test with one hell of a finish line.
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Hunter Hunter
Summary
Because there are so many unanswered questions coupled with one of the most graphic and cathartic horror endings in recent memory, this is exactly the kind of film you can’t wait to talk about.
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