Director – Elizabeth Blake-Thomas (Evie Rose, Unseen)
Starring – Mena Suvari (American Beauty, American Pie), Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow), and Will Peltz (Unfriended, The Collection)
Release Date – 2022
Rating – 3/5
The last year or so has brought us some seriously unforgettable genre films from Ti West’s X to the film adaptation of Joe Hill’s Black Phone. I’ve really enjoyed this renewed interested in the genre and can’t wait to see what films head our way. While movies like Evil Dead Rise, Renfield, and The Pope’s Exorcist are playing in theaters, we have several horror titles hitting VOD platforms.
Several weeks back I started receiving press releases for the horror action film Hunt Club starring Casper Van Dien and Mickey Rouke. I’m a fan of Dien and was curious about the film after reading the synopsis attached to the press releases. I was able to reach out to them and they were kind enough to send a screener link my way to check out. I wasn’t able to check it out right away but as soon as I could I hit play on it.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a woman who finds herself stranded at a road side diner when her girlfriend catches her making googly eyes with a young man and his father. They invite her back to their camp where it’s his son’s first hunting trip. She then tells her about a contest to win $100k. She agrees and goes with them. Things start out innocently enough when she meets other wealthy hunters and women they brought but as the night drags on she realizes they are not engaging in a normal hunt. They hunt women but what they don’t count on is that she is really there to avenge her daughter who was one of their hunting victims from a previous hunt. **Spoiler Alert**
Hunt Club is going to be compared to Surviving the Game and The Hunt and that’s because it’s just like those films. The Hunt was a bit of a letdown. I love these Surviving the Game style films but the political satire was not as clever as I had hoped for. While Hunt Club doesn’t offer up originality, it does offer up a mindless good time while fixing some of the issues I had with The Hunt.
The acting in this one is my favorite aspect of the film. I fucking love Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow, and Modern Vampires so I was looking forward to see Casper Van Dien deliver another underappreciated performance. I really liked his character and as the film progresses you get to see him dial up the intensity. I was also impressed by American Pie’s Mena Suvari. She has appeared in several horror titles in the passed like Rage: Carrie 2, Don’t Blink, American Horror Story and many more. She was someone I was not expecting to see yet she completely surprised me. I really liked her character and she really showed that she is another name in the game that delivers underrated performances. The supporting cast is just as good but I would like to comment on Rourke. He doesn’t act anymore. He’s the same character in every film he’s been in for the last 10 or 15 years so the fact he was barely used made the film better in my opinion. Over using him more would have made the film feel cheaper than it is.
The story for this one is almost identical to The Hunt except the characters are the opposite of each other. In Hunt Club we have wealthy men who are feeling threatened by smart and aggressive women taking over certain aspects of their lives that they deemed as a man’s right. Now, the lure women into their camp to hunt them. It’s during these trips that they finally get the control over women that they desire. This is a very intriguing back story and when you add the vengeful mother and her girlfriend you get a solid, yet generic, action horror film that is still fun for a first time watch.
Finally, the film has several bloody and violent death scenes. The practical effects, when used, is very effective and look great. It makes the violence in the death scenes really stand out. However, this film features some of the worst visual effects I have ever laid my eyes on. I don’t know if they zapped their budget or what but these cheap and rushed visuals look like shit. Overall, Hunt Club was surprisingly enjoyable. I really liked the cast and the idea behind the story. It was bloody and violent but the visual effects were a huge disappointment. Check it out.
