“ONCE YOU HAVE HUNTED HUMANS' ANIMALS JUST DON`T DO IT ANYMORE”
Ray (Omar Tucci) and his young mistress Brooke Hamilton (Marlene Malcolm) are looking forward to their peaceful weekend away together, to get a break from the Hussle and the buzzle of their busy life`s in the city. After settling a dispute with a small town's people about a development Ray`s company are planning, the couple are ready, no more excuses from Ray, it`s time for the vacation of their dreams at a lovely retreat, away from technology, no phones no contact with the outside world. Soon the dream becomes a nightmare as they are taken hostage to a remote island, where they are forced to play the most dangerous of games. Soon Brooke and Ray learn that the only way of the island is to kill or be killed. Pushed beyond who they are, Brooke will become the hardest of targets, now can Brooke and Ray survive the game?
Director Neil Mackay (Sixty Minutes to Midnight, Battleground) makes a great job of building tension, through the 1st and 2nd acts to the explosive 3rd act finale. Marlene Malcom comes into her own in act three. Which ends with possibly my favourite line from a film this year. The action scenes are staged well, they do get better as the film goes on. Death Hunt comes into its own with the gun fight chase scenes, these for me set it apart from most action films I`ve seen this year. Mackay and co-writer Sean McAulay keep the set up simple with the directing tight as they homage every human hunting film that you can think off. The three hunters are stereotypical rednecks that want to see society collapse and the only joy they seem to have in life, is this once-a-year human hunting game. I think both director and writer understand that they need to have great villains to make their film work. Actor Terry McDonald who plays TJ the leader of the hunters, his performance is just right, not too over the top, but loud enough at times to know not to mess with him. His partners also are just right in their roles never to over the top with dialogue delivery yes, some of the dialogue in the first act is cringy but it soon settles down. Then the pace is stepped up and Death Hunt becomes a decent little thriller worth watching. Cinematographer Renato Villas makes the film look stunning; he also somehow manages to make this low budget action thriller look way beyond it`s obvious low budget. I can`t praise him enough for the solid work he has done on this film.
I`m not going to say much more. Go out and find Death Hunt. I`ll leave you with this – Terry McDonald`s villain TJ is far more menacing than the pantomime annoying villain that Chris Evans is in The Gray Man.
ACTION-FILLED THRILLER ‘DEATH HUNT’ IS RELEASING NATIONWIDE IN SEPETMBER 2022
