Hunted Review

PLOT: A gang of young thieves in the midst of a home robbery get more than they bargained for when they are captured by the property owners. Attacked and bound by their captors, they are spirited away from the home and released in the middle of nowhere — tracked, hunted and to be killed like animals by a heavily armed wealthy family.

REVIEW: We’ve seen the “Most Dangerous Game” story told in many different ways, yet Hunted manages to still be entertaining despite knowing where it’s going for most of the duration. And I think it’s because they go the smart route of keeping this small. This is a singular group being hunted by another singular group. This isn’t some large conspiracy that spans the entire world, which immediately goes into the realm of fantasy. The film’s greatest strength is just how real the situation feels. As well as the cast.

I had a lot of fun with all four members of the group of thieves (Hannah Traylen, Malachi Pullar-Latchman, Ross Coles, and Nobuse Jnr). They’re all naturals and set up the reality of the world immediately. There are some interesting dynamics amongst the group, that puts their loyalty in question. I also feel like I should mention the elite hunters as well. Samantha Bond leads the troupe and she’s wonderful, giving such an English charm to very dire circumstances. The way she talks so casually about hunting down human beings is deliciously evil.

“The Hunt” itself is fairly devoid of tense moments, instead opting to treat the proceedings more like a rollercoaster, with constant movement, and never any time to settle down. I appreciated this because often these style of movies can really get dragged down by long dialogue scenes that don’t really work. Thankfully they’re able to push the dialogue naturally and avoid it all being exposition. It’s all the more surprising that this film comes from first-time director Tommy Boulding, because he handles it all like a seasoned vet.

There’s a pretty vicious dog mauling that is wonderfully shot, really making you feel the impact of the carnage without really seeing any of it. The less is more approach really worked there. But they didn’t manage to pull off many of the other effects very well, often using CGI to enhance the gore. I prefer practical any day, and those moments are significantly superior to the CGI-laden ones. Though I will say, it got a little out of control at the number of times we just saw the aftermath of a kill. I wouldn’t consider myself some gore fiend but come on, at least show a little impact every once in a while!

The only aspect that I wasn’t really a fan of was the group’s aversion to calling the police. I understand that they technically were kidnapped while trying to rob the people but regardless, they’ve been getting killed. That’s a bit more serious than a wee bit of burglary. If anything, it just made me frustrated with the characters. But thankfully they abandon that fairly quickly, so I’d still commend the writing for its clever unfolding of events.

Don’t be fooled by the title or the synopsis, Hunted is nothing like 2020s The Hunt, which took a more satirical approach to the material. While the story is certainly trying to teach a lesson, it never feels preachy like that film often did. Though I certainly could have done with a little more humor. The filmmakers take a very grounded approach with Hunted which I really appreciated. While not everything lands, I will always cheer on an independent movie that is pulled off so well.

Hunted is IN THEATERS ON OCTOBER 21ST, 2022 AND ON DEMAND ON OCTOBER 24TH, 2022.

Hunted

GOOD

7