The Night of the Hunted

'Night Of The Hunted' has been slammed in the other comments posted here to date, which I find hard to understand. While the movie isn't one of Jean Rollin's best it is far from worthless. The stunning Brigitte Lahaie, star of Rollin's vampire classic 'Fascination', plays a beautiful amnesiac befriended by a passing motorist. She is in a state of panic and trying to escape somebody, but we don't know who, and neither does she. She is subsequently recaptured by a man who claims to be a doctor and is returned to a mysterious apartment block cum hospital. In there are other similarly afflicted patients, or are they prisoners? The movie is slow and puzzling and will probably appeal more to fans of J.G. Ballard or Kobo Abe than those of conventional SF or horror movies. The Cronenberg comparisons it has been given aren't exactly on the money but give some idea that this isn't your average b-grade thriller, and it is even odd for Rollin, not exactly a conventional film maker at the best of times. I say ignore 'Night Of The Hunted's flaws and you'll be in for a fascinating, if not completely satisfying, experience.

A woman named Elizabeth has lost her memory. After being found by a man, she is taken in but soon captured and brought to the "black tower" with other mindless women...

Whoa, a Jean Rollin film without female vampires in a castle by the sea? Yes, kids, he did make other kinds of films, and this is one of them. But he has kept his trademark excessive nudity. Plenty of nude women, at least two nude men, and some sex scenes that go on for far too long (if you cut the sex out of Rollin's work, you are not left with much).

The first half of the film is a bit slow and not particularly interesting. The second half picks up and then we really see the horror aspects come out to play. The story gets even better as the revelations are produced and we find out more about these women and why they are where they are.

I have seen the film compared to "Shivers", and I do not completely disagree. But there is more than enough here with Rollin's unique stamp, so to simply dismiss it as being like "Shivers" is a big mistake. Though, if your intent is to direct "Shivers" fans to another film, by all means, do so.

The ever gorgeous Brigitte Lahaie wanders aimlessly through this Kafka-esque plot about an amnesiac trying to escape from a strange clinic where the staff tortures and sexually abuses patients as part of some undefined rehabilitation process. Could have been interesting had the ideas been better developed, but director Rollin concentrates more on getting Ms. Lahaie and the other female cast members out of their clothes rather than trivial matters such as story and characterization. The sterile atmosphere makes for some bland visuals and without Rollin's trademark gothic settings, there is little to entice the eye, apart from said lovelies.

This Rollin movie takes us into a surreal world, the cold architecture of satellite cities, with touches of 70s sci-fi from Rollerball to Rainer Erler, but nevertheless with Rollin's usual sex and gore obsessions. Several actresses had previous experience in the hardcore genre and provide gratuitous nudity, while any gore-hound will remember the suicide scene when the woman kills herself by stabbing a pair of scissors through her eyes into the brain. No, this is not a movie for the faint-hearted, but by no means a simple exploitation flick either.

Let us take a closer look at the story. Robert, a young man, drives through the night, when suddenly Elisabeth (Brigitte Lahaie) appears in front of his car. She seems confused and remembers nothing except her name and that she was trying to escape - but from where and from whom? Robert takes Elisabeth to his home, but a doctor followed them and he takes Elisabeth back to the place she ran away from - a lunatic asylum in a skyscraper. Robert has doubts that this a normal psychiatric hospital, it rather looks like a prison with the heavily armed guards. Does the doctor have a secret to hide?

This is a surprisingly quiet movie, literally. Music is often absent from the soundtrack. This stylistic means fits the situation of the mentally ill who complain about their loss of memory or lack of ability to use their limbs. Many scenes are painfully slow moving, but if you liked other movies by Rollin, you won't mind. That is setting a mood of intensity and concentration that you get into or you don't. The human touches are well done, especially the scene when Elisabeth feeds another inmate who cannot hold a spoon with her hands. Furthermore, I want to point out the memorable performance of red-haired Dominique Journet (in her first screen appearance!) as Véronique, Elisabeth's friend who tried to escape with her. When she loses the ability to speak and wanders around with empty eyes - behind which lies a scream -, such are moments of absolute horror, but in a very sophisticated way. The motif of two girls trying to survive together in a strange, hostile world, by the way, is one of the most typical for Rollin, see "Les Deux Orphelines Vampires" for example. And just like that later film, "La Nuit des Traquees" is a good movie for its low budget!

The Night of the Hunted (1980)

* (out of 4)

While driving through the country one night, a man picks up a woman (Brigitte Lahaie) who can't remember who she is or where she came from. It turns out the woman belongs to an asylum where others are suffering from memory loss but why? The better question would be who cares? I'm usually a fan of director Jean Rollin but this thing here is just a complete disaster. I first watched this movie probably a decade ago and decided to give it another shot, thinking that perhaps I had been too hard on it, but no, this here is a complete mess from start to finish with very few redeeming qualities. I guess the best thing that can be said about this movie is that at least Rollin keeps offering up French beauties and making them take their clothes off. The lovely Lahaie is actually fairly good in her role of the amnesiac but sadly the screenplay simply gives her nothing to do except walk around and acting dumb. I say acting dumb because there's not a single second where I believed anything that was going on in the story. Rollin has never been strong at making a fast paced film. As with many others, this here goes by very slowly but it's almost deadly here simply because you don't care about the story or what's really going on. Fans of Rollin might find something haunting here but to me this was just a complete misfire.