‘Night Of The Hunted’ Review – A Harrowing and Thought-Provoking One Location Thriller

Night of The Hunted introduces audiences to Alice, played by Camille Rowe. From the start, audiences find a flawed and unhappy woman. While her husband believes she is driving to a fertility clinic, she is returning from a pharmaceutical conference with her lover, John, played by Jeremy Scippio. Later, the pair stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and fall victim to a random sniper. Alice becomes trapped in the convenience store, battling for her life as the sadistic killer taunts her on a walkie-talkie left behind. A mental and later physical game of cat and mouse commences through their conversations as Alice tries to survive the night. 

Alice walls herself off in the store, using the items at her disposal to both tend to her bullet wounds and save her life. The movie is unrelenting in its violence. The sniper guns down passersby in a scene all too familiar in today’s world. Scattered throughout the ninety-minute runtime are occasional patrons at the gas station, most of whom meet their grizzly ends at the hands of the unseen gunman. Night of the Hunted offers a stark contrast to usual movie gore. The deaths are raw and brutal. There is a reality to the deaths that seem ripped from the headlines that clog newsfeeds or scrolls across the ticker on nightly news broadcasts. 

For much of the duration, the movie keeps the sniper hidden in the shadows of the hillside on a billboard. There is a unique religious undertone applied, at least to the sniper. He is an all-seeing, all-knowing deity hiding by a billboard with a divinely inspired message. His motivations are never clear, but that is the point. Is this a random act of violence or someone with an agenda? Is Alice the target, or did she fall prey to fate? The movie never answers these questions, leading to a vexing but all-out white-knuckled ride that is as much a thriller as a commentary on life.

Her past will haunt her, and her demons will hunt her, but Alice is not a passive bystander. She fights and turns her fear into a weapon of strength and means for survival, even as the killer taunts and the body count rises. The movie at first presents itself as another trapped-in-location movie; again, think Phone Booth. Once those initial feelings are annexed, the story diverges. The monsters are not under the bed but everywhere. The decision to rely heavily on ambiguity is again a significant strength.  

This harrowing tale toys with the audience. Both Alice and the sniper are cast as people shaped by world events. Both are two sides of the same coin, yet when it seems the movie will veer toward the cliché, it reverses course and charts a path of unpredictability. What is the killer’s purpose? Is this a psychotic ideologue? A vengeful ex-lover? Someone random. The movie’s commitment to avoid answering these questions is its ultimate strength, despite how frustrating it may be for viewers. 

The movie will offer a political and cultural commentary yet never deliver a resounding affirmation. The focus is an edge-of-the-seat adventure ride. Clues exist throughout, leaving the audience to debate the film’s true intent. Horror thrives when provocative, and Night of the Hunted is both that and downright terrifying. The movie is reflective of the moment. Post-pandemic. Post-fact world. Random acts of violence. Uncertainty in daily life. This movie at times, feels like an expose or documentary, right down to the grittiness in both its story and characters.

Still, there is no short of thrills and chills with this movie. The lead performance is raw and compelling, with complexities and real-life flaws. The trapped feeling of isolation and the confined convenience store setting is nothing short of brilliance. Hats off to director Franck Khalfoun, who subverts genre expectations and offers a few twists to audiences that will have people gasping and shouting at the screen.

The movie showcases the randomness of crime and the violence audiences may have grown too numb to seeing in the real world. Horror films succeed when the genre has one foot planted in reality. Night of The Hunted feels real because, in large part, it reflects the world today. Violence. Chaos. Uncertainty. The best horror films are never a fictionalized canvas. Though there can be extravagant settings and fanciful elements, horror is most effective when it offers a snapshot of the historical moment the movie takes place. There is a pronounced feeling of art imitating life.

Night of the Hunted will be available to stream on Shudder on October 20, 2023. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12SUjGsAEHs]