Hunter and the Hunted (2016) User Reviews (3)

Reason and the end made me regret wasting time here

[Angel_Peter · 2/10 · 3 May 2020]

I would say until approximately the last half hour the movie was promising enough.

The four lead characters did not really feel like they were friends. They did not share anything only bicker like an unhappy couple. I never understood why they were together.

Besides that I found the setup interesting enough and there was a very nice car chase. But after that the the movie lost meaning. I did not really see any reason for what was happening. And saying more would spoil I guess.

But actually the ending was even more meaningless for me. Pity as I think the actors did a reasonable good job here and a bit more conventional story line had improved the movie.

Nihilistic Character Study

[Pycal · 8/10 · 17 May 2016]

With his latest directorial effort, Michael Fredianelli tackles the backwoods thriller subgenre. At first glance (particularly if you've seen the trailer), the movie might look like familiar territory. Do we really need another movie about hunters or campers finding themselves ambushed in the woods by killers? Well in fact, HUNTER AND THE HUNTED has more depth than it might initially appear to have. At its heart, it's a character study and the character's motivations are much more complex than what you may expect them to be in what would seem like a simple cat and mouse game of survival. As the protagonists, we've got a group of predominately "bro" like characters who binge drink and converse about GAME OF THRONES and THE DARK KNIGHT while playing hand-held video games. They're rather unlikable people save for lead character Mark (played by Michael Fredianelli in an understated performance) who is the most relatable. There's purposely little revealed about this character and he plays a little like the viewer's playable video game character for them to project themselves onto. While the "bro" characters are over the top, it's through the lens of Mark that the filmmaker's (Todd Jurgess and Jeremy Koerner being the other story crafters here) are able to say things about modern US society and culture in a way that is even at times quite humorous. When you put these show-offy "bros" in a hunting trip scenario, conflict ultimately ensues and there are more than a few well realized twists and turns along the way.

As a film, HUNTER AND THE HUNTED is a step up technically from a lot of what Fredianelli has been producing lately. There's ambitious camera work on display from cinematographer Tyler M. Manzo that gives a sense of scope and awe absent in most micro-budget indie productions. The effects are achieved practically and the use of squibs and blank ammunition go a long way in upping the film's action movie chops. Throw in a stunning car chase that rivals most of Hollywood's set pieces in the last decade and you've got a hell of a ride. Aaron Stielstra achieves high marks for a score that punctuates the film's suspenseful moments while actor Jeremy Koerner is outright terrifying as the loose cannon in the group of the hunters. Mike Dinsmore is pitch-perfect as the fanatical leader of a group of hillbilly antagonists (rivaling the inbred redneck cannibals in Fredianelli's BLACKFACE KILLER no less!) that the hunters inevitably encounter. Overall, a solid Fredianelli feature that ranks up there with THE SCARLET WORM and BLACKFACE KILLER as one of the best films in the man's body of work.

Guts & Absurdity

[HughBennie-777 · 28 September 2016]

This entertaining survivalist drama in a wilderness of malignant hillbillies is burdened with a few question marks. The biggest being, Are these hunters really friends? They bicker and mock- threaten like junior-high kids on a school-bus. Once ambushed by hicks, the adult behavior which follows is equally hard to believe.

Second, the movie's bizarre philosophical subtext embraces both nihilism and mass-suicide (after multiple homicides), and this supports some theory that people are evil in general and not kind enough to each other. So, this justifies killing people in the name of evil, which the movie summarizes at the end as juvenile delinquent forms of misbehavior--like tripping people in parks? I don't get it.

Nonetheless, the movie's many surprises include an amazing truck chase plus other moments of gritty, violent suspense. The Aaron Stielstra soundtrack is a boost to all the action, with its many synth/orchestral and hillbilly instruments complementing the atmosphere. The photography is also excellent--especially during the knockout chase and forest scenes and night exteriors. So are the special effects. Too bad the movie opens with distracting blown out exteriors where a lot of actors' brows are rendered eyeless and Neanderthal.

The sense of isolation is broken by a confusing mid-section where some female barflies visit, then vanish from the scene. This nearness of civilization depletes the movie of what could be a more menacing environment. Especially as the hillbillies, though rather confusingly characterized, are well-acted and freakish enough to warrant locking your doors.

Mostly good performances help keep the absurdity at bay, with Michael Fredianelli giving a believable, subdued performance as the one hunter who seems genuinely unsettled by all the mayhem. Excellent and extremely risky stunt work and dummy crushings provide even more punch. On an atrocity level, the movie delivers.

Without the intrusive and exposition-heavy finale--complete with a lengthy monologue which seems lifted out of another movie entirely-- the movie could dispose of its bloated philosophizing. The terrifying themes about inhumanity and civilization versus hillbillies qualify for a lot less incoherent exploration, even after the genius of "The Hills Have Eyes", "Deliverance", "Shoot", "Hunter's Blood", and the fantastic Richard Matheson novel, "Hunted Past Reason".

Still, Fredianelli's movie supplies great action and interesting new ideas. If only the climactic summary of all the on screen death wasn't weighted down with such a bludgeoning approach.