Happy Hunting

Its strangely entertaining to watch, but at the same time god dang awful.

I was very interested in 'Happy Hunting' once I found out it was directed and written by Mel Gibson's son Louie Gibson. Mel is one of the finest directors working in Hollywood today so I thought it would be very interesting to see if his son possessed any of the same talent. So does he? Possibly, it was harder to work out than I had anticipated. 'Happy Hunting' is quite a strange film. It sets out to be strange, but I think managed to be even stranger than intended and in unintended ways. I would say I enjoyed it, without loving it.

There's a point halfway through the film where you will likely ask yourself how are they going to stretch this out for another 45 minutes? They manage it though and while I wouldn't say the pacing of the film is its strongest point, it's not a bad effort considering the way the film is set up. I also liked some of the creativity used in certain scenes. This is the main indication to me that Louie Gibson might have some real talent because creativity in film making seems to be the thing most directors struggle with today. It is sorely lacking in many modern films, however not this one. I wouldn't call this a "must-see" but if you stumble across it on Netflix it's worth a watch and you'll get basically what you're promised.

Seen at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2017 (website: www.bifff.net). Starting with an original premise, it has even more original developments in its favor. Of course, the prey has slim chances to survive as per the initial setup of the hunting "game", yet it takes some time for the villagers to learn that the prey this time does not give in so easily as in previous years. In a series of scenes, switching from prey to prey, one falling after the other, yet this time with victims on both sides. Luckily for us viewers, it all went differently from previous years. Alcohol plays an important side role, primarily (of course) for main character Warren throughout the running time, but he also makes productive use of alcohol near the finale.

Entertaining throughout, apart from Warren's alcohol addiction and related cold turkey phenomena, and despite the unnecessary violence, the latter not shown in all gory detail yet suggested with not much left to outguess. For example, when someone's head is beaten with a baseball bat, the movement of the bat is clearly shown but not the ultimate effects on the receiving end. A concession towards content advisory ratings?? It won't help, as the whole movie is riddled with unmitigated violence all over. But it is not Horror in the old-fashioned and literal sense of the word, so no dark corners nor ancient buildings, no monsters nor ghosts, only ordinary (yet redneck) people operating in broad daylight (or some at night) with destructive intentions.

All in all, casting and acting make this movie stand out in the first place, in addition to the original plot with many unexpected developments.

I am writing a review of this film again as my old review got deleted somehow. So this time i will make it a short review. Saw this on a dvd. As a fan of survival movies especially set in the backwoods, deserts, outback n snowcovered land, i enjoyed viewing this. I love movies set in the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan.

This movie has less body count n a bit slow pacing, but the overall product is pretty enjoyable for genre fans. Of course, the plot once again lifted from The Most Dangerous Game.

Druggie loser Warren Novak needs to go to Mexico to meet his child. He gets involved in a drug sale which goes terribly wrong. He runs away and finds himself in a small town near the border. He and other troubled souls are taken captive by the town. The town is reliving their hunting traditions and they're hunting the most dangerous animal.

I don't care that much about Warren. The drug sale is very memorable, but there isn't much else. The premise has been done plenty. This is not doing something completely new. Nothing is really exciting me, but it's not horrible. I feel a bit bland about this.