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Film: Night of the Hunted
Year: 2023
Director: Franck Khalfoun
Writers: Glen Freyer and Franck Khalfoun
Starring: Camille Rowe, Jeremy Scippio and J. John Bieler
Review:
This was a movie that I decided to check out when looking for 2023 releases on Shudder. The title and poster caught my attention. The premise was also intriguing. I decided to go ahead and check this out for those reasons.
Synopsis: a woman stops at a remote gas station in the middle of the night and becomes the target of a sociopathic sniper with a secret vendetta.
We start this off in a motel room. Alice (Camille Rowe) gets up and goes to the bathroom. She gets a call from her significant other, Erik (Aleksander Popovic). Through dialogue later and from this conversation, Alice is coming home from a convention. She needs to get back so she can go to an appointment with a fertility doctor. What Erik doesn’t realize or is ignoring is the fact that she is cheating on him with a co-worker, John (Jeremy Scippio). He is driving her home and we see him get in the shower while she’s having a video call with Erik.
The two then get in the car and John’s annoyed that they’re leaving this early. He tries to do things that a couple would do, but we see that Alice is ashamed. The two need to stop off for gas and for her to get coffee. She is annoyed with him since she told him to get gas the night before. He claims that he did. We see that there is a slow leak of the tank. She goes in and doesn’t find anyone working. This is when the night turns dark for this duo.
There is a sniper watching this station. He already shot the attendant. Alice notices the blood. She goes to leave and she is shot in the upper arm. John must be out of his sight or he is waiting for him to go in. He gets into the car to wait for Alice. She scrambles around the store before he is killed. There is a walkie-talkie on the counter and someone is asking for Amelia (Brenda Nunez). This is the attendant. Alice sneaks around to grab this to have him call for help. This is just the beginning of the nightmare as the person she is talking to might not be who she thinks.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’m going to start is that we have a simple premise that is carried by the acting. We get enough story to strand Alice inside of this store. There are things though that get introduced through Erik and John that helps with the back and forth with the sniper. I did like that. This is a premise that isn’t necessarily new. Trapping someone inside of a place and creating danger to try to leave is the crux here. Like I said, it is the performances that need to be strong to carry this. It also feels like a stage play with that concept as well.
Let’s then get into our lead of Alice and look at her more. Where I want to start is that I thought Rowe did a good job at taking on this character. It is interesting that to start with, I dislike her since she is cheating on Erik. Whether he knows it or not, it makes her unlikable. The more we get to know her, the more that I feel for her. She tries to justify her decision due to being scared and having issues getting pregnant. This is done while talking to the sniper. My issue there is that it still doesn’t make up for her cheating. I do understand that she is going through struggles and making self-destructive decisions. Rowe’s performance here was good, even in the least to get a reaction from me.
Now to drive the attention, we need to have a good villain. A movie that is similar here would be Phonebooth. We have our lead talking to the sniper and being ‘hunted’. My issue is that it feels like this taking jab at the alt-right and making him crazy. What would work better for me is having them say these things and then double-back. Make Alice think that is who is targeting her. Going the route that they did, it alienates that side and makes this feel like ‘woke propaganda’. Do I think the stance of our sniper is what is being said here? Yes, it does fit. There is the idea that the sniper was messed up from their time in the military and then they think something happened here with Amelia to make them do what they did. If we go a bit more ambiguous, I think that allows both sides to think what they want the killer to be and not take such a hard stance. That is how I think it would make it work better personally. Make the sniper toy with her more. I believe that the sniper is played by Stasa Stanic, which they did a good job as well.
Where I’ll then go is that I love the setting. We have this remote gas station which is good. That explains why there aren’t a lot of people stopping here. It is also early in the morning so that is another aspect of it. Bringing in the filmmaking here, I thought that the cinematography does good in capturing that isolated feel. I love that we have this billboard where our sniper is. It can be read as God is Nowhere or God is Now Here. That is an interesting element to this, especially if we believe that our sniper is an extremist like he said. We get limited effects, but we don’t need it. The look of gunshot wounds and blood was solid. Those look good. There is a brutal scene at the end that I liked. Credit to that. I’ll also credit the sound design since the communication is all done through walkie talkie. That along with the musical selections was good.
All that is left then is acting. I’ve already said that Rowe and Stanic are good. They carry this. I’m not fully sure if we are hearing his voice or not for the sniper. I can’t find anyone else doing this role. We also have solid performances by Scippio, J. John Bieler, Brian Breiter, Abbe Andersen, Nunez, Popovic and Isaiah Reyes. They’re all good to push our two leads to where they end up. What I like is that Alice doesn’t know who to trust. There is also Cindy (Monaia Abdelrahim) who is a little girl that raises tension when she shows up as well.
In conclusion, this is a solid film. I do like it being set mostly in one location. We have Alice getting trapped as she is targeted by a sniper. This is made in a way that is good. The effects are the strongest there, but I also like the cinematography and the framing to give that isolated feel of the location. The acting is good between her and Stanic to push them to where they end up. My only issue is that I think the reasons the sniper gives are clinched where it would be better to seem more unhinged and mess with Alice more. Regardless, this is a solid film to watch. I can see people looking at this as propaganda. Getting passed that though, it is fine.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10