Review: Hunter Hunter (2020)

Directed by: Shawn Linden
Starring: Devon Sawa, Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell
Written by: Shawn Linden
Music by: Kevon Cronin
Country: United States, Canada
Not available on Blu-ray/DVD
IMDb

Writer/director Shawn Linden’s gruesome tale of figurative and literal survival is getting a lot of notice for its ending and, indeed, it’s a gut-puncher. But we’ll discuss that more in a minute. I don’t usually put spoiler warnings in my reviews, but consider this one. This movie is definitely best viewed with no knowledge of its events, except the basic setup: Joseph and Anne Mersault, and their daughter Renee, are fur trappers living on the outskirts of society, facing the extinction of their way of life, which is exacerbated when a wolf starts picking off the animals they’re trapping. Joseph soon discovers there’s also a serial killer roaming the woods when he stumbles upon a handful of brutally mutilated women. Linden initially does an admirable job setting up the Mersault family, giving the audience a bit of time to empathize: Joseph (Devon Sawa) is too stubborn to admit the modern world doesn’t dig pelts or have much use for his ability to tan hides using boiled animal brains. Anna (Camille Sullivan) sees the writing on the wall — their frontier lifestyle hadn’t been her cup of tea anyway — and she wants their daughter to have a shot at a typical childhood. Unfortunately, Linden gets sidetracked quickly and any character development is consumed by the film’s oppressively tense atmosphere and beautiful cinematography, which really brings the Canadian wilderness to volatile life. For some reason, there’s an obligation to introduce ancillary characters that don’t provide much other than a detraction from the Mersault’s defense against predators human and lupine. And, although the possibility of a serial killer is introduced within the first 30 minutes or so, the middle stretch of the movie places this dish on the back burner, which comes to bite Linden in the ass when the abrupt shift of the third act feels pretty insufficiently founded. When Nick Stahl’s killer, Lou, eventually crosses paths with the family, their collision feels too brief, even as it proves to be far more devastating than any wolf. His character isn’t explored at all, which is fine, I guess, but he ends up as sort of a reverse deus ex machina — a whirlwind of bloody carnage that appears out of nowhere to destroy everything. Lou does, however, awaken Anne’s animalistic bloodthirst for survival that she’d been tamping down over the exhausting years with Joseph. I’m not going to get into details about the ending, but let’s just say her family’s trade comes in handy and you’re left with a final shot that’s pretty fucking haunting. But alas, a big reason the moment is so shocking is because it’s not particularly earned: Anne is not set up as having the temperament or skills to commit the heinous act, and Lou is not given enough screen time to showcase his menace and steep the moment in the proper tenor of catharsis it needs to work beyond visceral impact. But anyway, I’m grading things too harshly now. Any time a movie gets this close to being perfect, committing only a few minor missteps that could have been easily remedied, it’s frustrating. But bottom line: This is a pretty great movie, thick with suspense and atmosphere, with a finale that’s going to break your heart and assault your senses.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10