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Film: Hunting Daze (Jour de chasse)
Year: 2024
Director: Annick Blanc
Writer: Annick Blanc
Starring: Nahéma Ricci, Bruno Marcil and Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi
Review:
This was a film that I got the chance to see thanks to Marc from Silk Road Entertainment. He asked if I was interested in watching the screener for review. Confirming that this was horror and a wide release 2025, I agreed since I do enjoy checking out independent films to round out my list. I did read the synopsis and confirm this was in genre ahead of watching, not necessarily horror though. I’ll come back to that.
Synopsis: Nina (Nahéma Ricci), a tempestuous young woman joins a group of hunters in a remote cabin. A mysterious stranger’s arrival disrupts her newfound place in their male micro-society.
We begin with a car that ran out of gas. The stretch of road is desolate and I should point out that this is in Canada. There aren’t many cars that come through here at this time. There is Mike (Mattis Savard-Verhoeven) along with a couple of women, including Nina. Kevin (Frédéric Millaire-Zouvi) comes to their rescue with gas. Mike blows up at Nina who also fires back at him. Since she didn’t back down, he leaves her there. Nina then turns on her charm to get Kevin to help further.
Now these two met the previous night. Nina is a stripper and she was performing for Kevin along with his friends. One is LP (Alexandre Landry) and he’s getting married. They are doing a hunting trip as part of a bachelor’s trip with Bernard (Bruno Marcil), Philippe (Marc Beaupré) and Claude (Maxime Genois). When Kevin shows up with Nina, it is put to a vote whether they’ll let her stay. It is a slim margin and comes down to Bernard telling her that he’ll allow it if she is willing to go through an initiation.
We then get a montage of them hazing her. She does pass and they see her as one of their group now. There is another person who shows up like she did, also brought by Kevin. His name is Doudos (Noubi Ndiaye). They go about the same process, but things take a turn. LP accidentally shoots him in the shoulder. He doesn’t want to go to the hospital. The guys clean up his wound, but when things seem to turn bad for Doudos, they have to decide what they’ll do to take care of him.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start then with my breakdown is that this is another film that I’ve seen for 2025 that is borderline horror. I could see people watching this and not considering it. This isn’t even listed on the Internet Movie Database or Letterboxd. It is dark in tone so it fits my podcast. There are elements that go into the genre. I just wanted to set that up before going deeper.
Now that I’ve set that up, I did want to bring up something from the synopsis. Nina is living in this micro-society. She is outnumbered 5-1 and then when this stranger shows up, 6-1. What I like though is that they’re treating and considering her opinion on what to do with Doudos. It isn’t until she disagrees with them on what to do that her profession and standing in society is brought up. They throw it in her face then. You could also say that when she shows up, she is looked at as an outsider. She is acclimated from there. It does feel like Deliverance where they have a tough decision and worry about how it affects their lives outside of this isolated place. They have more to lose than Nina. Something I’ll include here is that I love that they don’t oversexualize her character outside of her profession to explain why she ended up here. I figured it would go into the territory of Revenge. Credit to what they did here as well as to Ricci’s performance.
Where I want to then shift goes into filmmaking. This uses dream sequences which I’m not always a fan of. Nina keeps having dreams where she sees herself as a witch and on a pyre, waiting for it to be lit. There is a gun that is on fire pointed at her. Visually these dreams and nightmares are stunning. Drugs and drinking are being used so I understand why we get hallucinations. That gives it a surreal feel. They look good so credit to the cinematography there. It also does well with the framing to develop that isolated feel of where they are. This also has limited effects, they looked good. I’m guessing we have both practically done and CGI. No issues with either. I did also think the sound design and music help build the atmosphere they’re needing.
All that is left is finish out with the acting. I’ve already said that Ricci was good. Marcil, Millaire-Zouvi, Beaupré, Landry and Genois are as well. What I like there is that they’re all distinct characters. I recognize each, but they also meld into a hive mind to protect themselves from facing the consequences of what they did. LP is forced to do something, but he also got them into the mess. Ndiaye is good as this catalyst that starts the ‘nightmare’. He’s also different so that factors in. The rest of the cast are fine to set the stage as well.
There isn’t more to delve into so in conclusion, I enjoyed my time here. The best part is the visuals. Being able to capture the isolated feel with the cinematography and framing is great. The surreal feel of the dreams and coming to terms with what they’ve done or the cover up. Acting is good across the board with Ricci leading the way there. I’ll also say the rest of the filmmaking aspects are good to help build this atmosphere. Not everyone will consider this to be horror, but I think that it is dark in the tale it is telling. If that is up your alley, then I’d recommend it. This is one that I might need to revisit as well as I’m not sure I fully understood the ending.
My Rating: 7 out of 10