Everything about Hunter Hunter’s marketing paints it as a familiar survival thriller that leans into the psychological based suspense that tends to come with harsh conditions and a remote wilderness setting. A family struggling to survive deep in the woods, far removed from civilization, with a rogue wolf on the prowl suggests a tense yet straightforward tale. And for a while, Hunter Hunter is content to follow the familiar path; right up until it plummets straight into unexpected territory, resulting in one of the grimmest and most jaw-dropping horror films of the year.
Joseph Mersault (Devon Sawa) comes from a long line of hunters and fur traders and is raising his teen daughter Renée (Summer Howell) to follow in his footsteps, along with wife Anne (Camille Sullivan). Fur pelts aren’t worth what they used to be, though, making their remote way of life an increasing struggle for survival. Anne dreams of uprooting her small family and moving closer to civilization to provide a semblance of normalcy for Renée. The thought alone makes Joseph bristle. A rogue wolf exacerbates the tensions between the couple. Determined to catch it, Joseph leaves them behind to track and trap the wolf. In his prolonged absence, Anne and Renée grow increasingly anxious, and its made worse by the discovery of an injured man named Lou (Nick Stahl).
Writer/Director Shawn Linden bides his time in revealing where this family’s journey is headed. Linden focuses on Anne’s mounting desperation and anxieties, on her struggle to appease her husband’s devout commitment to a dying way of life while on the cusp of constant starvation. That Sawa plays Joseph with a gruff intensity only further highlights the precariousness of Anne’s situation. From Joseph’s quickness to put himself in danger to the fearless wolf to the new stranger, every plot beat introduced doesn’t just serve as a significant threat for survival but highlights Anne’s increasing lack of agency.
With a deceptively simple setup, Linden presents a harrowing pressure cooker for Anne as all the red herrings, plot threads, and dangers slowly converge to create one of the most intense third acts to come along in recent memory. Linden intentionally underprepared the viewer for what’s in store, too, ensuring it packs a potent, visceral gut punch. The slow-coiling tension mounts in leisurely fashion, lulling you into a sense of false complacency. The subtle foreshadowing still can’t prepare for what’s in store, as the line between predator and prey blur with shocking violence.
The wilderness setting adds a gorgeous and lush production value to a small feature, and the effective score lends a feeling of dread in even the most seemingly benign of scenes. There’s a laser precision to Linden’s direction, but Hunter Hunter’s astonishing success hinges on its performances. As great as seasoned actors Stahl and Sawa are in their roles, this film belongs to Sullivan. It’s Anne that undergoes the most dramatic character arc. The imagery of the finale will stick with you whether you’re invested in these characters or not. Still, Sullivan’s nuanced portrayal of an inexperienced woman crumbling under the weight of it all gives it the emotional heft that clinches the entire thing. She taps into a raw, primal power that’s impressive as it is adrenaline-pumping.
Hunter Hunter makes for a simple slow-burn thriller with a payoff that’s worth it. That it’s so straightforward and bears a generic title means that it’s likely to get overlooked. Don’t. Within the familiar survival thriller setup lies a film unafraid to get savage, delivering one of the most hardcore endings in recent memory. It’s as savage as it is strangely cathartic, but be sure to have a comfort watch on standby when it’s all over. It’s that grim.
Hunter Hunter releases in select theaters, on digital, and VOD on December 18, 2020.
