The Hunt

THE HUNT is another attempt at a MOST DANGEROUS GAME style storyline, in which unsuspecting humans are hunted through the woods by a pack of sadistic predators. As a French film it has more in common with the extreme likes of FRONTIERS and MARTYRS than the classics of the genre (and I include the great Van Damme action flick HARD TARGET in that category).

Unfortunately, it's not very good, with an all-too-familiar script that detracts from the experience. The focus on sadism merely highlights the shortcomings found elsewhere in the movie. The 'game' find themselves with their tongues cut off in an early scene and it gets worse from there. The bloodshed is mean-spirited and unpleasant, but it can't hide the lack of film-making talent and the almost non-existent script. THE HUNT ably paints a disturbing picture of humankind at its worst but it doesn't have the requisite elements to make it feel like a proper movie at all.

French horror films are exactly like buses . You're waiting an entire life time for one to turn up and then several turn up all at once . This is probably down to me frequently tuning in to the Horror Channel rather than France upping their output of genre films . It's not so much horror as you'd get from the Hammer studio or George A Romero zombies shuffling around and is more like a gore drenched psychological thriller that owes a bit to john Woo's HARD TARGET and THE HUNGER GAMES as an investigative reporter comes across a story that may cost him his life

What THE HUNT is good at is creating an unsettling atmosphere . There is nothing more beautiful and tranquil as a deserted woodland . Now just imagine how different things are if it contains men who want to kill you . And that's what the film does brilliantly in conveying an intense sense of danger and menace that could be behind any tree . There's not a lot of dialogue but there's more than enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seat

That said it is a rather flawed film . Some people may respect the enigmatic nature of THE HUNT but the questions involved go unresolved . There's not a consistent tone to the film and the early scenes with Alex at the start of the film feel like they belong In another film entirely and the film suffers from a very abrupt ending that will have you scratching your head wondering if the budget had run out and the production had to stop there and then

When it comes to grim horror films, no one beats the French. Unfortunately in recent times French Horror has hit a bit of a dry patch, so you could imagine my excitement when I realized that The Hunt was being released and it was in fact from France!

Being a lower budget film you can guess the flaws the film would have. Some of the camera work isn't up to scratch with a lot of the more widely known French Horror movies. It actually reminded of the terrible "Lady Blood" but thankfully this movie actually demonstrated that even low budget film makers can make a worthwhile movie.

It is a movie that doesn't rely on a solid storyline, but a grim and tense atmosphere. I thought the setting of the woods was very beautiful and haunting at the same time and you could sense the danger around every corner. Our main character didn't really have any charm to him, so it didn't matter whether he survived or not, which can ultimately hurt a film, but once again, the movie didn't rely on that.

What is manages to do is keep you in its suspense. By the end of the film you will be left thinking that something is missing, but this director has all the right things to make him a bigger player in the French Horror world. It has the brutality and nastiness to it that is evidence that this director realizes that French Horror is the leading force in World Cinema and that he wasn't going to steer away from that.

So to summarize, the movie has its flaws, but it is a worthy addition to the ever growing French Horror scene! If you can excuse some of the budget problems, you will get yet another nasty French experience.

Intriguing but ultimately nothing special.

Watched this by accident, thinking it was the highly-acclaimed movie of the same name, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Mads Mikkelsen. Released at about the same time too. Imagine my disappointment when instead of something rated 8.3 by IMDb I got something rated 4.7...

This said, it is not terrible. Plot is intriguing, story is gritty and there is a good degree of tension throughout. However it ultimately just seems so conventional. Linear story, no real twists. Dull ending.

Quite short though, which is a good thing.

It's basically just a bunch of guys running through the woods dressed in millitary costumes, killing eachother with bow and arrow or a knife. Compared to Battle Royale this looks really low budget, there are a few bloody moments but nothing special. There a little bit of tension but... they could've done a better job. No matter what you read, plz don't compare this one to any other violent french films like Haute Tension because you just can't compare a well made production to low budget. I'll be honest because i don't want to sound like it's garbage, it has a few moments next to the action scenes. I'm just saying that with a bit more budget it could've been better.