FORMAT: BLU-RAY
A doctor comes to work in a small mountain village in Spain where everyone seems to have an affinity for hunting. The good doctor does some snooping and eventually learns the locals’ favorite sport is man. Seems they even have a van that goes around rounding up junkies that the townsfolk use as their (most dangerous) game. Naturally, once the doc stumbles upon all this (not to mention the fact that he’s banging the girlfriend of the asshole who organizes the hunt), he too becomes the hunted. He then must mobilize the addicts and whip them into fighting shape in order to turn the tables against the bloodthirsty townspeople.
Blood Hunt starts slowly, but effectively. Director Javier (Blood and Sand) Elorrieta deliberately parcels out the dirt on the shady villagers and takes his time before revealing the whys and hows surrounding the big hunt. The long flashback that explains the villagers’ motivations is well done, but it does kind of take away from the immediacy of the doctor’s plight. This attempt to humanize the hunters is admirable though.
On the flip side, I think Elorrieta could’ve turned up the heat in a timelier manner when it came to the hunting sequences. It certainly wouldn’t have hurt to at least humanize the junkie characters a bit more either. Still, he manages to keep the audience engaged up to a certain point, even if he never quite ratchets up the tension to a full boil.
Once the film eventually comes down the homestretch, we do get some Peckinpah-inspired slow-mo shootouts and gunfights, complete with bloody squibs. The finale is fine too, even if it seems to get wrapped up rather quickly. It could’ve done with a bit more fireworks and/or firepower too. Overall, it’s not Hard Target or anything, but for fans of Most Dangerous Game variations, Blood Hunt will probably scratch a certain itch.
AKA: The Night of Rage.
No comments:
Post a Comment