BARE BONES: THE HUNT (2020)

THE HUNT (2020)

Flick is yet another version of the the tired ‘rich people hunting poor people’ scenario. Here a group of elitist, extreme left rich folks bring a group of low income, right wing captives to an area of Croatia to be hunted for sport. A case of mistaken identity amongst their specifically chosen targets lands ex-soldier Crystal (Betty Gilpin) in their midst and she has no plans to die easily.

Flick gained some attention after being delayed from it’s September 2019 release date due to some real-life shootings at the time. Now having seen the film, it seems more like a publicity stunt to give some notoriety to this turkey. The flick is badly directed by Craig Zobel (the far better Compliance) from an awful script by Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse. The makers give no credit to it’s audience for having any intelligence and the film stops dead, so characters can recite the film’s political and social commentary right at you. It’s so heavy-handed and obvious that midway through it starts to give you a headache. It would seem like the script writers had no faith in their own story to relay it’s messages…about race, immigration, the division between rich and poor…so they literally throw it in your face every chance they get. Having the rich a-holes being extreme leftists this time and their quarry being right wing “rednecks” does not cleverness make and the attempts at humor and satire fall flat most of the time, as well. Gilpin (Glow) does the best she can with what she’s given to work with and if there are any points to give here, her climactic fight with Hilary Swank’s villainous Athena, is fun to watch. The reveals during this last act confrontation, however, aren’t as big a deal as the film wants us to think they are. We’ve been force fed so much already, we simply don’t care at this point. Avoid unless you are too curious to save yourself money and 90 minutes of your time. Definitely a candidate for worst film of the year

-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: BORN and COMPLIANCE

BORN (2007)

Unintentionally hilarious horror stars Alison Brie (Sleeping WIth Other People) as a virginal young woman who is impregnated by a demon at her mother’s funeral…don’t ask. Now as she falls under her unborn child’s evil influence, she goes on a killing spree to supply six victims for it’s birthing ritual.

Low budget horror is as stupid as it sounds and as filled with clichés as you’d expect and gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on. Star Brie recites some side split-tingly awful dialog and goes completely over the top in scenes that are meant to be shocking and scary, but provide rib-tickling laughs instead. The sex scene is worth watching this for alone…you’ll laugh till you cry…as is the scene where her water breaks and it looks like green dishwashing liquid! And the whole thing is meant to be serious! Epic fail for them!…Win, win for us!

Also starring Denise Crosby and genre favorite Kane Hodder who actually looks embarrassed to be in this. Crack open your favorite brew and enjoy this schlock-fest.

Oh…and for those watching for the charming Alison Brie, there’s good and bad news…the Community star does get to kiss another girl and talk hilariously dirty during a sex scene, but sadly uses an obvious body double for the brief nude scenes. Below rating is purely for ‘so bad it’s good’ entertainment value.

-MonsterZero NJ

COMPLIANCE (2012)

A disturbing thriller based on supposedly true events about a mean spirited prank pulled on the employees of a fast food restaurant. A caller (Pat Healy), claiming to be a police officer, tells manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) that one of her employees, Becky (Dreama Walker) has committed a theft and needs to be searched and detained. The caller asks Sandra and her staff to do increasingly humiliating things to Becky all under the guise that it is part of a criminal investigation and none of them seem to have the courage to question the increasingly depraved acts until it’s too late.

Compliance is a tough movie to sit through and it would be hard to believe that people could be stupid enough to go along with such a horrible prank for as long as they did, except for the fact that it is all taken from a case in 2004 at a Mc Donald’s in Fort Washington, Kentucky. Craig Zobel writes and directs the story fairly straightforward and he gets good performances out of his cast and the result is a disturbing movie that is tough to sit through…even more so, because it actually happened. Not a great film. The aftermath seems rushed after the film took it’s time portraying the events, but it is still effective and fairly well made.

-MonsterZero NJ