"HUNTER HUNTER" (2020)

Hunter Hunter (2020)

Written and directed by Shawn Linden
Starring Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, Devon Sawa and Nick Stahl
Running time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
Unrated: contains incidences of violence on the scale from implied to very explicit

by Hunter Bush


Hello there. My name is Hunter and I’m here to talk about the film Hunter Hunter, which I took because of both the repetitive use of my name and the presence of Devon Sawa in the cast. Which do you want me to talk about first?

Well, according to family legend, my mom was going to name me after an actor (or possibly the character) that her father quite liked: Gunnar - a strong, handsome name! -  and then her eye kind of drifted across the page of the baby name book and there was Hunter, just sitting there minding its own business and all of a sudden BOOM! That’s my name. I was made fun of a little bit for it, not as much as you’d think. Most of the mockery was aimed at my physical appearance or interests. What can I say? Children are monsters.

Devon Sawa is a Canadian-born actor who rose to fame doing commercials before breaking into film with roles in pictures Little Giants, Now and Then and, notably, Casper. He aged into some decently well-known teenage roles in films like SLC Punk, Idle Hands and Final Destination, and has been acting consistently, in films and on TV, all along. His most enduring contribution to pop culture will probably end up being his role as Stan in Eminem’s music video of the same name, which codified the name into a term meaning “someone who is an outspoken fan of a thing” which in recent years has become a verb. As in “In this house, we stan Devon Sawa.”


I mean it, too. I don’t know what exactly but, something about him has always drawn me in - pure charisma? - and over time I think he’s maturing into a really interesting character actor. He’s also a good follow on social media, speaking openly about his hard-earned and continuing sobriety and, in a move that endeared him to me even further, promising to keep appearing in interesting horror films until you’d have enough to watch one a day in October. Be still, my spooky little heart.

In Hunter Hunter, he plays Joshua, a father and antisocial survivalist, one of these folks who can live off the land and who see no need to go to town for anything more than the necessities. He lives with his wife Anne (Camille Sullivan) and daughter Renee (Summer H. Howell) in a cabin in the wilderness and hunts and traps animals for food and commerce, selling their hides in town. He’s even teaching Renee to follow in his footsteps, walking her step by step through skinning an animal, though mom seems to have little stomach for it.

It’s not an easy life to begin with and the presence of a wolf in their hunting ground only complicates things. Their various animal traps are their primary sources of food and income, and them being picked clean means Joshua’s only option is to find the wolf and kill it. “The wolf is attracted to something (in the area), prey or a female” Joshua says, and once that thing is eliminated, he’ll move on. So Joshua sets out to find the wolf… and doesn’t come back. Anne and Renee are worried and growing increasingly hungry as the days roll on. Then Lou (Nick Stahl) arrives, seemingly injured by the wolf and in need of medical attention.

“If you wanna snag a wolf, you gotta out-wolf him.” Joshua says at one point. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. That idea of anticipating someone’s moves and playing them right into your hands. This dialogue is in Hunter Hunter because it works really well when juxtaposed with the flick’s Final Moments - which are great and will probably be all anyone ever talks about in regards to the movie - but the thing is, the movie isn’t really trying very hard to out-wolf us, it’s just trying to get to those Final Moments. Even with me simply mentioning that Lou shows up at their cabin, I’m guessing you’re beginning to sense something’s off and you probably have a good idea of what’s going on. What’s more, you’re probably right.

There might be a take of this material that plays with the possibility that something supernatural is afoot, but this ain’t it. You know most of the script’s moves long before it makes them, yes, even the Final Moments. I fully anticipate rolling my eyes many times in the near future as Letterboxd reviews roll in saying things like “I did NOT see that coming!” because I did see them coming, and so should you. Is the finale gnarly? Nihilistic? Unlike many other endings? Absolutely, but it’s so inevitable that you don’t even dread it’s arrival.

It would really have been something if writer/director Shawn Linden had really tried to out-think his audience, and taken the script to some unexpected places or, alternately, to get us to feeling that we were so far ahead of the flick that we never see some shocking twist coming But that’s just not the case.

Sadder still is that, the rest of the film is honestly quite good! There isn’t a bad performance from the small cast. Sawa knows this isn’t his movie and lets Joshua just be the archetypal woodsman character, which allows Howell and Sullivan to quietly shine in all their interactions. Howell won me over early on in a scene where her parents start arguing at the dinner table and she’s asked to go to her room for a moment. She’s hungry, the plate of good hot food is right there in front of her, she doesn’t care about her parents’ shit, she just wants dinner. Her delivery of the line “Can’t I just cover my ears?” was pitch perfect and avoided seeming too kid-actorly, too precious. Sullivan has to do a lot in Hunter Hunter and do most of it at a deficit. Her character is guarded around the forest rangers, and Lou, and is trying to keep up appearances for Renee. So Sullivan has to carve out her character by what she chooses to say or not say, how she maintains control. It’s a fantastic performance that will probably take a backseat to the spectacle of the Final Moments.

You’ll have to watch the movie to see them for yourself but rest assured: they’re a w-i-l-d bit of genre fun that will absolutely leave people talking.


Hunter Hunter is available in select theaters, on digital & on demand beginning Dec. 18th 2020.




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This piece was written for Moviejawn where you can find tons of other excellent movie-centric writings, a shop where you can subscribe to the quarterly physical zine and also listen to the  I Saw It In a Movie,  Cinematic Crypt  or  Hate Watch / Great Watch  podcasts!
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