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Stars: Nahéma Ricci, Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, Bruno Marcil, Marc Beaupré | Written and Directed by Annick Blanc

Hunting Daze (Jour de Chasse), the first feature from writer/director Annick Blanc, begins on a desolate road somewhere in rural Quebec, the kind where the quiet feels eerie rather than peaceful. That’s where we meet Nina and her two companions, fellow strippers stranded by the side of the road because their not-so-bright manager, Mike, forgot to fill up his car’s gas tank.

Nina eventually manages to get Kevin, one of the guys from the bachelor party they’d performed for the night before, to come to their rescue with gas. But things go sideways quickly. A heated argument between Nina and Mike escalates into violence, and Nina winds up returning with Kevin to the hunting lodge. The deal? She can stay the night and get a ride back to civilization later,...

A fiery young woman stranded in the Canadian wilderness is rescued by a group of machismo-fueled men staying in a remote cabin in Hunting Daze. The film takes this unnerving premise to feral heights with a surprising narrative that twists and turns to a truly unexpected conclusion. Eyeballs will be glued to the screen as the film skates a razor's edge of tension while escalating pointed themes of group dynamics, socio-sexual hierarchy, and moral relativism. The well does overflow with weirdness as rampant drug use and boozing trigger bizarre dream sequences to a head-scratching fault.

Nina (Nahéma Ricci) leans indignantly on a rock face while arguing with her equally stuck companions. Their car has run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. She calls Kevin (Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi), a random guy she met several days earlier, for help. He drives up to the group with a jug of gas, but...

Nina, a tempestuous young woman, joins a group of hunters in a remote cabin. A mysterious stranger's arrival disrupts her newfound place in their male micro-society.   Annick Blanc's Quebecois thriller, Hunting Daze, will have its U.S. release next week on January 14th. Distributor Breaking Glass Pictures have premiered the trailer, which you will find down below.    Hunting Daze stars Nahéma Ricci, Bruno Marcil, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Marc Beaupré, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, and Noubi Ndiaye.   You can also check out Josh's review from SXSW here.    Breaking Glass Pictures proudly announces the US release of the critically acclaimed Canadian thriller "Hunting Daze," set to release on January 14, 2025. Directed and written by Annick Blanc, this gripping tale of survival, belonging, and mystery has...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

“Hunting Daze” begins with a premise familiar from many a past exploitation movie: Comely but tough lone woman finds herself having to beg assistance from a bunch of boozed-up, back-slapping bros having a dudes-only weekend in a remote rural setting. Suspense formula would decree that they’ll turn their rifle sights from wild game to this fresh prey, though not before some preliminary “sport” with her.

That is the expectation, but not what writer-director Annick Blanc’s debut feature actually delivers. Instead, she serves up an unpredictable allegory whose message is sometimes cloudy, but whose striking confidence and bold stylistic gambits are never less than impressive. This French-language Canadian production is many things — some aspects less than fully developed — but most of all an announcement of a precociously assured new talent whose future moves will be worth charting.

Introduced as a disgruntled outsider already, Nina (Nahema Ricci) is first seen...

"She agrees to live like a wolf... according to the laws of the pack." A festival promo trailer has debuted for an intriguing new indie film from Canada titled Hunting Daze, made by the Montreal filmmaker Annick Blanc as her feature directorial debut. This unsettling thriller is premiering at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival in the Midnighter section. Nina, an exotic dancer, is stranded in the far North. She persuades five men on a hunting trip to host her. In this masculine microsociety, by turns hilarious and philosophical, Nina starts to feel a sense of belonging she never has before. But a mysterious stranger’s arrival changes the course of this improvised holiday forever. Nahéma Ricci stars as Nina, with Bruno Marcil, Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi, Marc Beaupré, Alexandre Landry, Maxime Genois, and Noubi Ndiaye as Dudos. There are a couple of serious "whoaaaa what?!" shots in this trailer, making me extra curious...

This year’s SXSW Film Festival, taking place in Austin, TX, just unveiled their lineup, and what a massive year for horror.

The 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival’s Opening Night TV Premiere is the highly anticipated Netflix series 3 Body Problem created, executive produced and written by Emmy Award winners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and Emmy Award nominee Alexander Woo. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg for what’s in store.

The fest unveiled its Midnight lineup, which includes the Samara Weaving-starring Azrael. Elsewhere, look for Neon’s highly anticipated Cuckoo set to make its premiere.

Read on for the genre titles included in SXSW 2024’s lineup, and stay tuned for additional programming announcements.

Narrative Spotlight

Unforgettable features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres.

Cuckoo (Germany)

Director/Screenwriter: Tilman Singer, Producers: Markus Halberschmidt, Josh Rosenbaum, Maria Tsigka, Ken Kao, Thor Bradwell, Ben Rimmer...

Souterrain

Quebec’s Sophie Dupuis will have sophomore feature Souterrain ready for 2020, produced by Etienne Hansez from Montreal’s Bravo Charlie and backed by Sodec, Telefilm Canada and the Harold Greenberg Fund. Returning to her native Val d’Or, Dupuis reunites with her 2018 Chien de Garde (Family First) star Théodore Pellerin with a cast consisting of Joakim Robillard, James Hyndman, Guillaume Cyr, Catherine Trudeau, Mickael Gouin, Chantal Fontaine, Bruno Marcil, Jean L’Italien, Lauren Hartley, Jean-Francois Boudreau, Maxime Genois, Charles-Aubey Houde and Sebastien Leblanc.…...