Hunters (2015)

Hunters (2015)

d:  Adam Ahlbrandt

s:  Linnea Quigley, J.D. Brown, Dave Parker, Ellie Church, Haley Jay Madison, Adam Ahlbrandt, Kacie Marie, Victor Bonacore, Tina Krause, Anthony Curry, Jason Vail, Shaun Paul Costello, Jadie Marie Goodpasture, Genoveva Rossi, Loretta Vendetta, Cotton Robbins, Jess Rajs, Rebecca Jeffers, Gordon Price, Joe Hiatt, Mel Heflin, Joe Gariffo 

(out of 5)

Waited a long time to see this film.  Adam Ahlbrandt is one of my favorite indie filmmakers and while he does have some glaring problems with his character writing and acting ability I love his shooting style, his fx, and his overall idea of what he's going for in each one of his films and I have them all.  Even Sight which is an excellent film Adam himself is not a giant fan of although I'm not sure at all why. 

     This movie is set starting in 1961 where a couple is murdered and their baby taken away.  The years shoot on by to I believe 1987 and then again in 1992 throughout the movie showcasing the bloody ravings of James and his brother who video record their nasty deeds on camera.  Didn't take me long to figure out James was the baby from the beginning and his brother (who shall remain nameless in this review) obviously was most likely also a kidnapped child.  The movie really reminded me of the old school 70s and 80s video nasty's most especially Mother's Day and Last House On the Left.  The movie is very well edited going back and forth between the marauding brothers and a group of main characters out looking to shoot a movie in an old abandoned building out in the middle of no where.  The sounds in this movie also went right along with whole 70s and 80s feel and the special effects could not really have been much better.  The blood was real looking, the gore was off the hook, really enjoyed the death of James's brother especially.  The one blunder of the fx and in my opinion it was a bit of a big one, was a particularly nasty scene where the character played by Ellie Church is forced to eat her own lover's severed penis (yes you read that right).  In this scene an extra large dildo head was used and not anatomically correct at all, and for me anyway ruined the hardness of the scene.  Also the penis would have been flaccid not erect.  Ellie shined though for what she had to work with in this movie.  She is a tremendously talented actress I would have liked to have seen with more lines.  Haley Jay Madison played Lucy and she was another actress I really felt got jipped in the end as far as her role in the film.  Would like to have seen her do a lot more.  Dave Parker another favorite of mine played yet another helpless victim of the family of murderers who is forced to remain naked and video record a lot of what the two brothers deal out to whatever victim falls in their path.  And there were many. 
     The film goes from beginning to end with non-stop torture and murder. It really does not end well.  At least for me.  I like a movie to have a climax and while the end isn't terrible and does not ruin the rest of the movie for me like say Nightmare On Elm Street, it just kind of doesn't happen.  It will definitely make the gorehounds and boner boys happy with all the blood and boobies while at the same time making the fans of 70s/80s horror very happy.  I am a giant fan of gore movies and 70s/80s movies so this hit me in the right spots overall for that.  The boner boy stuff I can always take or leave, at least in this film it's all called for and part of what's going on in the movie instead of just added for bonus to put grins on certain viewer's faces.   That crap usually for me just makes the movie look unprofessional but it worked well here. 
     The two stars who shined the highest in this to me were J.D. Brown and Linnea Quigley.  I highly recommend watching the Raw Snuff Video extra on the DVD it really explains a little bit more on her character and that of her daughter in the movie.  Linnea is a favorite of mine so all these scenes were essential watching and I'm glad they were included in the extras.  J.D. really came out in this one as a mean and terrible man and I think he did the best he's ever done.  I watched some of his "Walk Down Memory Lane" interview also included in the extras.  He seemed to be acting during the interview, maybe that's how he always acts I really don't know but either way the interview is worth watching I only got about 20 minutes in and he answered several great questions on what it's like shooting a "mean film" like this and how he separates his characters on screen in Adam's movies with himself as a viewer.  Very interesting stuff.

     This movie really started off so well and I did like most of the film but per usual with Adam's movies there are always these overacted emo/punk characters who in this viewer's opinion just ruin the tone of the movie every time they speak or come in shot.  The Krill character while he did have an awesome final scene his scenes previous to that most especially his revenge scene in the field could have been completely cut out and the movie would have been better for it.  I do not blame the actor here I actually think he did a good job playing the character but the writing of the character took away from everything going on.  Tone for a film like this is everything and the whacky antics of Krill took me out of the movie it was like the humor in Green Inferno just unnecessary and ill placed.  Then there's a scene at the end involving Adam Ahlbrandt himself who I'm sorry is a terrible actor, both voice and actions wise and he needs to stay behind the camera.  This particular scene involving a giant black rubber dildo was just not on par with the tone of the film and definitely took a lot away from the end.  There's a death scene involving this horrid sex toy and that was excellent.  A little overly large for what was happening to the victim but the tone was the same unlike the first scene mentioned with Adam. 
     So yes I have to go with three out of five bloody handprints on this one.  It could have been 4 or even five very easily.  But it had no climax, no real ending, a couple poorly written characters and one scene in particular where the actor who has his leg shot off forgets to scream.  All indie writers and directors reading this...stop letting actors get away with not suffering and screaming on camera it's a giant no-no.  Especially if you're going for realism of any kind.  In the indie movie The Woods Within a young man gets an arrow in the leg and just gets up and runs, in this a leg gets shot off almost completely and nope not one scream.  Not to mention severing a penis creates death from lack of blood a lot faster than is portrayed in this film.  There is a deleted scene that continues the life of the victim with the severed penis and I'm glad it was deleted.