Night of the Hunted (2023)

October 25, 2023 11:29 PM

When an unsuspecting woman stops at a remote gas station in the dead of night, she becomes the target of a sniper with an axe to grind.

Written and directed by Franck Khalfoun. (Maniac reboot) This is a remake of "Night of the Rat" a 2015 movie about a carpool gone horribly wrong. Starring Camille Rowe (The Deep House) as Alice.

TW: child endangerment

posted by miss-lapin (4 comments total)

I honestly made this post to warn people about this movie because of how deeply annoying it is. It's basically MAGA: The movie where a woman who works in marketing for a pharmaceutical company is targeted by a sniper so they can have a "meaningful conversation" about how she slept her way to the top or simply MeToo-ed her way to the top. Not that she actually did, he just assumed that because of course she can't possibly be good at her job. But even if she didn't her company kills people because vaccines are a front to implant microch...do I even have to keep going? You can easily fill in the rest. There's no reason to have an entire damn movie with one character spewing this non-stop. If I want that, I can just turn on Fox "News."

Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com totally nailed his reviewof this movie:

Khalfoun’s tendency to pander to and then punish genre fans resembles the grisly, sensory-overloading New French Extremity horror movies of the mid-00s, like “High Tension,” which was directed by “Night of the Hunter” producer Alexandre Aja. Aja’s influence shows throughout “Night of the Hunted,” especially in how it, like many post-Cinema du Look French movies, claims an eye-roll-inducing solidarity with young women while also subjecting them to a litany of abuses. How original, a genre-savvy horror movie that shows how sophistry-spewing men routinely corner women and weaponize their own grievances while trapping and clobbering us with endless and knowingly empty sophistry.

In addition to all of this Alice's attempts at survival are as uninteresting as the sniper's rhetoric. And for those who are fans of gore, there's really no creative kills either. Basically there is absolutely nothing to recommend this movie. It's not even the fun kind of bad like Neon Maniacs where you can laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
posted by miss-lapin at 11:43 PM on October 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

Thank you for stepping in front of this bullet for us. I will do the opposite of adding it to my watchlist based on this.
posted by Molesome at 4:06 AM on October 26, 2023 [5 favorites]

You're welcome. I really didn't know what I was getting into as the reviews on letterboxd were overall very positive. After watching it I was like, "I gotta let people know what to really expect" because if I had gotten this warning? Wouldn't have bothered with it.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:25 AM on October 26, 2023

will also not be adding this to my list!
posted by supermedusa at 12:25 PM on October 26, 2023