Opiniones de usuarios

Night of the Hunted is ostensibly something of a departure for French horror auteur Jean Rollin. Its story is on the face of it unusual for the director. Its about a mysterious clinic in a high-rise building where patients have a mental disorder where their memories and identities are disintegrating due to an environmental accident. The setting is in the middle of a city and the visuals are ones of sterile urban alienation as opposed to the Gothic surrealism more typically associated with Rollin. Yet, within this veneer is a film that anyone even remotely familiar with the director's work can identify quite easily as one of his films. It has the typical Rollin characters - alluring yet strangely asexual young women in the central roles and extremely dull men in the periphery. The dialogue is as poor as always. The story is as flimsy and senseless as its possible to be. There is an abundance of nudity. It has the strange melancholic, romantic atmosphere which always makes his movies so odd for horror films. And it also displays Rollin's eye for the surreal. The ending in particular on the grassy viaduct over the city being a perfect example of this. In other words, Night of the Hunted, despite surface differences contains all the strengths and weaknesses that all Rollin films have.

The story and setting itself very much recalls the work of David Cronenberg. But the similarities are entirely superficial. As Rollin is pretty much diametrically opposite in approach to Cronenberg as a filmmaker. Where the latter is highly scientific in his approach, Rollin is a pure romantic. In fairness, the story here could have done with a bit of developing to make it entirely satisfying but then you could probably say that about all the other films in the directors oeuvre to some extent. There is a quite nice score which certainly adds to the atmosphere well; while Brigitte Lahaie is a good presence and by some distance the only memorable actor in the entire film.

If you have any hope of enjoying this film you need to be able to buy into the weird haunting world typical of this director. You need to have some appreciation of his visual ideas too. Otherwise I expect you may dislike this rather a lot. I wouldn't say this is a particularly accessible Rollin film; I'm not really sure there is such a thing.

A young man driving through an unnamed French city chances upon a startled girl in a nightdress. To say she's confused is an understatement, as she asks for help, forgets about asking for help, forgets about where she is, what her name is, and general seems to have her mind wiped completely clean. The young man drives her back to his house, unheeding of the other girl left behind in the woods.

The rescued girl is called Elisabeth, but that's about all she remembers. Our young man, Robert, settles her down in is home, not knowing that some mysterious people have followed them there in a car. After a morally dubious, lengthy sex session with Elisabeth, Robert sets off for work only for a doctor and nurse to appear and take Elisabeth 'home', which turns out to be a huge monolithic black tower.

By the time Elisabeth has forgotten all about Robert, and is taken back to what she's told is her room, where a similarly stricken girl called Catherine lives. Elisabeth, as far as she can perceive, realises that everyone in the tower block is like her, with the exception of a rape happy orderly, the doctor, and those armed guards stopping anyone from leaving. There's also Veronique, who turns out to be the girl who tried to escape with Elisabeth at the start of the film.

The question is, why is Elisabeth there and what is the purpose of the doctor and his minions? Don't expect a custard pie fight and a sing-a-long at end of this one as the film descends into gory murders and suicides, gun fights, and another escape attempts due to Elisabeth finding Robert's phone number in her pocket (she doesn't remember him of course, but he remembers her!).

Between this and The Grapes of Death, I cannot believe that Jean Rollin was the man responsible for the terrible Zombie Lake. Both Grape and this are short on plot but high in atmosphere, and this one, although not exactly a pulse-racing action fest, is fascinating as a mystery and a grim modern horror. The clinical interiors of the black tower just add to the unease, as does the brutal violence that comes out of nowhere.

This being a Jean Rollin film, and a French film, every lady in this one gets naked. This is why I love tracking down all these films, there's always one or two that come out of nowhere and surprise.

I've never made to the end of Zombie Lake, but I'm going to give it another go.

The ever gorgeous Brigitte Lahaie wanders aimlessly through this Kafka-esque plot about an amnesiac trying to escape from a strange clinic where the staff tortures and sexually abuses patients as part of some undefined rehabilitation process. Could have been interesting had the ideas been better developed, but director Rollin concentrates more on getting Ms. Lahaie and the other female cast members out of their clothes rather than trivial matters such as story and characterization. The sterile atmosphere makes for some bland visuals and without Rollin's trademark gothic settings, there is little to entice the eye, apart from said lovelies.

'Night Of The Hunted' has been slammed in the other comments posted here to date, which I find hard to understand. While the movie isn't one of Jean Rollin's best it is far from worthless. The stunning Brigitte Lahaie, star of Rollin's vampire classic 'Fascination', plays a beautiful amnesiac befriended by a passing motorist. She is in a state of panic and trying to escape somebody, but we don't know who, and neither does she. She is subsequently recaptured by a man who claims to be a doctor and is returned to a mysterious apartment block cum hospital. In there are other similarly afflicted patients, or are they prisoners? The movie is slow and puzzling and will probably appeal more to fans of J.G. Ballard or Kobo Abe than those of conventional SF or horror movies. The Cronenberg comparisons it has been given aren't exactly on the money but give some idea that this isn't your average b-grade thriller, and it is even odd for Rollin, not exactly a conventional film maker at the best of times. I say ignore 'Night Of The Hunted's flaws and you'll be in for a fascinating, if not completely satisfying, experience.

Amnesiac women who remove their clothes at the drop of a hat (or a blouse?) are about the only stand-out points in a film that is otherwise slow and aimless. Although the basic premise of the story offers a wealth of possibilities, they are never developed to any satisfying degree, and exposition is almost non-existent. A large proportion of the film is mere wanderings through the corridors of a multi-storied clinic/hospital. The overall effect is bleak and sterile, a la THX-1138.

Late one night, a young man named Robert (Alain Duclos), who is out driving, picks up an attractive blonde, Elisabeth (Brigitte Lahaie), who's clad in a nightgown and who is clearly running from something. Soon, the people from whom she escaped come to collect her, and take her back to the high-rise building in which she and assorted troubled individuals are being looked after. They are all suffering some sort of malaise that plays havoc with their memories, and can affect other things like sense of balance.

"The Night of the Hunted" is much like other cinema from French filmmaker Jean Rollin: interesting, erotic, surreal, atmospheric. It's a good chiller that requires some patience on the part of the viewer, as its first half is actually rather dull. The dialogue quickly becomes redundant, and things are only spiced up here and there with the female nudity. The story just isn't that strong.

Then things kick into a higher gear once the film starts getting violent. We can see that these patients really are a danger to each other. And sometimes their memories return, but in bits and pieces. The characters who could be seen as "villains" have exposition in store for Robert, laying it out for the audience just in case we didn't already get it. The very urban setting is an effective change of pace for Rollin, as he gives us plenty of shots of towering skyscrapers and overhead shots of Paris. In the end, this helps to make a difference. The tale being told becomes more affecting as it becomes a study of treatment of the mentally ill.

The acting is variable, as some performers come off better than others. There's no moustache-twirling from the doctor in charge (Bernard Papineau), whose acting is quite low-key. The stunning Lahaie is appealing in the lead, and Dominique Journet is similarly engaging as her friend Veronique.

Overall, this is a sombre film combining horror, sci-fi, and exploitation, and ending in an oddly poignant way.

Seven out of 10.

So far I disliked every single Jean Rollin movie I've seen, and that always bothered me because he's an acclaimed Euro-trash monument and extremely popular amongst many regular reviewers on this lovely website; people whose opinions I always value and usually concur with. Apparently everybody always appears to pinpoint some sort of gloomy and stylistic filming trademarks in his work that are completely lost on me. Rollin's movies are unimaginably boring, they all feature the same basic concept (lesbian vampires in various settings), the dialogs are incredibly absurd, the marvelous Gothic setting are always underused and the production values are cheaper than the price of a bus ticket. I had actually given up on Rollin's repertoire already (especially after enduring "The Iron Rose"), until I found out about "Night of the Hunted". Allegedly, this movie doesn't feature any lame lesbian vampires and stands as a bona fide horror movie with gruesome killings and macabre plot twists. And the verdict is … yes and no! On one hand, this is undeniably the most compelling and inventive Rollin film I had the pleasure of seeing thus far (and also the only one that I watching without dozing off…). On the other hand, it still remains a moronic movie with a nonsensical plot and emotionless sex sequences to compensate for the dullness. Jean Rollin heavily attempts to generate an atmosphere of secrecy and suspense, mostly through a lack of information and vaguely introduced characters, but barely manages to hide the fact he actually hasn't got a story to tell at all. The unearthly beautiful lead actress Brigitte Lahaie and the beautifully ominous musical guidance are the only elements that keep you hooked on the screen. During a nightly drive back home to Paris, a young man abruptly has to stop for a confused and scarcely dressed girl who comes running from the woods. Her name is Elisabeth but furthermore she can't remember anything about herself and from what or whom she was running away. Her case of amnesia is so bad she even continuously forgets who picked her up. The next day, she's kidnapped again by an old guy and taken to a sinister apartment complex where multiple people in the same bizarre mental state are held captive. Elisabeth knows nothing, but she does sense she needs to escape from here. Obviously I won't reveal the denouement, but I can assure you it is quite dumb, illogical and far-fetched. Apparently Rollin realized this as well, because the explanation is kept very brief and quick. There's a large number of overly weird and senseless sequences, the sex footage is dire and filmed without passion, the nasty make-up effects look cheap and randomly thrown without actual purpose. As said, the score is mesmerizing and Brigitte Lahaie's perfect body is addictive to glaze at.

Brigitte Lahaie stars as Teresa, a woman running from someone on a road when a man driving by picks her up and takes her home. She suffers from severe amnesia, not remembering anything except the present moment.

The driver, Robert, tries to help her but she has no idea where she lives or why she was on the road in the first place. They shortly thereafter have sex, which provides the highlight of this otherwise middle of the road movie. Ms. Lahaie is beautiful and has a spectacular body which is put on display again later on.

She is visited by a doctor and his wife and taken to a large ominous looking black building with people wandering around the lobby in various states of confusion. The tenants are fed and taken care of but the reason for their confusion isn't explained until the very end. In between we get some female nudity and a little violence thrown in to keep things moving in this mildly amusing film.

While driving home, Robert (Alain Duclos) sees Elysabeth (Brigitte Lahaie) in a state of distress and asking for help in the driveway in the middle of the night. He soon discovers she has amnesia and offers her help since she does not have anywhere to go nor anyone else to ask for help. While Robert leaves, Elysabeth is confronted by two strangers who claim to know her and ask her to follow them in order to help her. These two strangers are Le docteur Francis (Bernard Papineau) and Solange (Rachel Mhas), specialists in charge of a facility.

Written and directed by Jean Rollin, La nuit des traquées is engaging at the beginning owing to the thrill and suspenseful atmosphere of the situation of Brigitte Lahaie's character. A pacing that is uneven since it starts to slow down in the second act where the action takes place in the Black Tower. In this place Elysabeth is introduced to her room, where Catherine (Catherine Greiner) is also staying. The latter seems to have the same memory loss as our protagonist, and that creates a bond between them, most of the time consisting of a friendship, although with sexual tension enlivening others. In true Rollin fashion, amnesia is utilized as a vehicle to explore the desires of the flesh, giving expression to erotic feelings that find reification in the many naked bodies shown throughout, especially Brigitte Lahaie's. It is also exemplified, for instance, when Catherine tells her roommate, "The only thing left for us to do is to touch our bodies. It's our only pleasure. The only one we don't forget."

When it comes to its cinematography, although by no means it is lacking in quality, it certainly isn't as good as other films by Rollin. There are some outside takes whose erratic movement is distant from the stylish static. One of Rollins distinctive qualities is his use of castles and beautiful settings that always help to convey a dreamlike sensation, something that is lacking in La nuit des traquées, where instead of the aforementioned we are before minimalistic white-paneled rooms and an industrial side of the city where elegance is missing. Furthermore, the writer-director seems to use elements to convey the state of mind of the characters, e.g., hectic waves in the outdoor fountains to illustrate anxiety. This gives unanimated objects an expressionism, creating a dialogue with the story itself.

Ultimately, La nuit des traquées is definitely not the best Rollin movie, but neither the worse. It is an average movie with good and bad aspects.

This Rollin movie takes us into a surreal world, the cold architecture of satellite cities, with touches of 70s sci-fi from Rollerball to Rainer Erler, but nevertheless with Rollin's usual sex and gore obsessions. Several actresses had previous experience in the hardcore genre and provide gratuitous nudity, while any gore-hound will remember the suicide scene when the woman kills herself by stabbing a pair of scissors through her eyes into the brain. No, this is not a movie for the faint-hearted, but by no means a simple exploitation flick either.

Let us take a closer look at the story. Robert, a young man, drives through the night, when suddenly Elisabeth (Brigitte Lahaie) appears in front of his car. She seems confused and remembers nothing except her name and that she was trying to escape - but from where and from whom? Robert takes Elisabeth to his home, but a doctor followed them and he takes Elisabeth back to the place she ran away from - a lunatic asylum in a skyscraper. Robert has doubts that this a normal psychiatric hospital, it rather looks like a prison with the heavily armed guards. Does the doctor have a secret to hide?

This is a surprisingly quiet movie, literally. Music is often absent from the soundtrack. This stylistic means fits the situation of the mentally ill who complain about their loss of memory or lack of ability to use their limbs. Many scenes are painfully slow moving, but if you liked other movies by Rollin, you won't mind. That is setting a mood of intensity and concentration that you get into or you don't. The human touches are well done, especially the scene when Elisabeth feeds another inmate who cannot hold a spoon with her hands. Furthermore, I want to point out the memorable performance of red-haired Dominique Journet (in her first screen appearance!) as Véronique, Elisabeth's friend who tried to escape with her. When she loses the ability to speak and wanders around with empty eyes - behind which lies a scream -, such are moments of absolute horror, but in a very sophisticated way. The motif of two girls trying to survive together in a strange, hostile world, by the way, is one of the most typical for Rollin, see "Les Deux Orphelines Vampires" for example. And just like that later film, "La Nuit des Traquees" is a good movie for its low budget!

First of all I watch this film because of Brigitte Lahaie and this is also the first Jean Rollin film I have watched. I don't know if his other films are like this but in general this film is a bit 'illogical'.

I like the tranquility and subtlety of this film, mostly because of its urban settings, it's lovely according to me. The 'enough' nudity, including a soft sex scene which I think is actually optional, is shown in this film and adds to the flavor of this film even though it will be eaten away by its flimsy plot. It's thrilling of course, plus with some 'bright red' blood, you know what I mean.

However, this film is slow, yes it's slow and personally I generally don't like slow films. There are many scenes which actually may not be 'slow' but it seems like they are intentionally made that way to make the audience expect what will come next. It might be meant to accompany the 'illogical' plot, maybe. There is almost no story development of course but thankfully there is a lot of dialogue.

People don't have to read subtitles to understand a film like this but it's melancholy when you know what the characters are talking about, especially since this film heavy on dialogue. I can't say if the ending of this film is good or not but it's ethereal.

Quote from the film: "The only thing left for us to do is to touch our own bodies. It's our only pleasure. The only one we don't forget."

In this film Jean Rollin traded in his usual surrealist-Gothic, crumbling-castle-by-the-seaside setting for a cold, modern Paris office building. Still this film has the same strange atmosphere of haunting romanticism and the interesting visuals that characterize the director's best work. The plot is uncharacteristically coherent--a man falls in love with a woman who has escaped from a high-rise clinic where she is being kept along with a number of other patients whose memories, identities, and very minds are being eaten away as the result of an environmental accident. On a superficial level, the movie seems like a cross between David Cronenberg's "Shivers" and George Romero's "The Crazies", but it's a Rollin film all the way focusing more on the tragic romance than the conspiracy angle. There's too much dialog and much of it is pretty inane, but some of it is actually pretty moving. It makes you think of the plight of Alzheimer's patients (albeit young, attractive, and frequently naked ones). The only real let-down is the acting. Brigitte Lahaie is a great actress for a former porn star, but that's kind of like being a great basketball player for a quadriplegic. The male lead is a stiff and the guy playing the doctor is pretty unconvincing. Still,if you like Rollin films in general, this one is worth checking out at least.

"Night of the Hunted" stars French porn star Brigitte Lahaie.In fact,many of the cast members in this slow-moving production were porn actors at the time of its frantic filming.This film is certainly different than Rollin's usual lesbian vampire flicks,but it's not as memorable as for example "Lips of Blood" or "Fascination".Lahaie plays an amnesiac hitchhiker who can't remember who she is or where she came from.Most of the film takes place in a modern apartment complex,where Lahaie is being held by some kind of medical group that's treating a number of people with a similar condition.Anyway,she escapes from the monolithic office tower where the affected people are held.On a highway outside of town,she meets a young man,who stops and picks her up."Night of the Hunted" offers plenty of nudity,unfortunately the pace is extremely slow.The atmosphere is horribly sad and the relationship between Brigitte Lahaie and another asylum inmate Dominique Journet is well-developed.Still "Night of the Hunted" is too dull to be completely enjoyable.Give it a look only if you are a fan of Jean Rollin's works.7 out of 10 and that's being kind.

I went into "Night of the Hunted" not knowing what to expect at all. I was really impressed.

It is essentially a mystery/thriller where this girl who can't remember anything gets 'rescued' by a guy who happens to be driving past. The two become fast friends and lovers and together, they try to figure out what is going on with her. Through some vague flashbacks and grim memories, they eventually get to the bottom of it and the ending is pretty cool.

I really liked the setting of this one: a desolate, post-modern Paris is the backdrop with lots of gray skies and tall buildings. Very metropolitan. Groovy soundtrack and lots of nudity.

Surprising it was made in 1980; seems somewhat ahead of it's time.

8 out of 10, kids.

(1980) The Night Of The Hunted/ La nuit des traquées (In French with English subtitles) ADULT HORROR/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Written and directed by Jean Rollin that has a woman wearing her sleeping clothes, is seen wandering along the highway. Her expressions are a total blank but a young man comes to pick her up and finds that she has a poor memory who has a knack to forget what ordinary people would remember, such as, where and who she was. We then find that people were following her after she got into the car too, as they wait for him to go to work. These two people would then come to pick her up, as they know more than viewers do. Not so much a horror film as much as a social commentary film about alienation, particularly from the government where theirs a point A and a point B. There are a few scenes of gore but the real horror is the thought about how people of higher authority treat the unfortunate. And perhaps with a higher budget, this film wouldn't be that bad.

Rollin's images are usually pure enough in just being themselves, that it's all a matter of how much concentrated emptiness he can shape around them; in other words he does story poorly, so when he manages to concentrate just a few strands around a sense of place his films can soothe with a dreamlike resonance.

The story here is about distraught amnesiacs kept under lock in a mysterious apartment complex. So we get a lot of somnambulist wanderings along empty corridors, a lot of stanzas about the ineffabilities of touch and connection in clinical environments; always on the verge between paralysis and sleep, bursts of emotional clarity - usually in the nude - drowned by despair.

The imports are distinctly Cartesian; so the mind matters, thought matters because ergo we are, memory, the self. Losing these is tantamount to a spiritual death.

So a lot of outdated ruminations on a philosophical level, not to say anything of Rollin's tendency to eventually rationalize the mystifying in a way that, looking back, we can contend ourselves that it all somehow made sense; here nonsense about a nuclear spill and the mind deteriorating on a cellular level.

But the sense of place is occasionally just powerful enough, the emptiness mirrored outside in desolate urban landscapes, that it merits one viewing for fans. You can relax with this, but perhaps a bit too much.

No pun intended - I did watch a movie recently with the same title. But it had nothing to do with this one. I thought it might have been a remake or something along those lines. This has Brigitte LaHaine ... and a bit of nudity. Quite a lot for some, but just enough for others (or even too little).

The movie does not seem to make sense in one scene ... just to go even more ... well loco in the next. You have to embrace the otherworldly stuff to say the least. I thought it would be more horror and therefor wanted to include it to my Shocktober challenge list ... but I got told this is more an erotic thriller with a weird touch ... no pun intended! A lot of weird touch ... sensibilities be damned too ...

I'm always amazed at the fact that the plot of the average Rollin film fits on the back a stamp and yet he manages to create really atmospheric and genuinely suspenseful films. As in Grapes of Death the story is about an environmental desaster and in this case about the cover up. Again he uses his muse Brigitte Lahaie as one of the principal actresses. I genuinely think that Lahaie is actually a good actress. Shame she never got the success in mainsteam films she deserved. The film contains gratuitous sex and violence. But beisdes that it's a very atmospheric and creepy film. Rollin does not use the stereotypical dark old building as setting for the apocalyptic story but a well lit modern high rise which gives the film an original tone. The ending is tragic but surprisngly romantic for Rollin.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. Sure it is a bit slow moving in parts, but what else would one expect from Rollin? Also there is plenty of nudity, nothing wrong with that, particularly as it includes lots of the gorgeous, Brigitte Lahaie. There are also some spectacularly eroticised female dead, bit more dodgey, perhaps, but most effective. There is also a sci-fi like storyline with a brief explanation at the end, but I wouldn't bother too much with that. No, here we have a most interesting exploration of memory and the effect of memory loss and to just what extent one is still 'alive' without memory. My DVD sleeve mentions David Cronenberg and whilst this is perhaps not quite as good as his best films, there is some similarity here, particularly with the great use of seemingly menacing architecture and the effective and creepy use of inside space. As I have tried to indicate this is by no means a rip roaring thriller, it is a captivating, nightmare like movie that makes the very most of its locations, including a stunning railway setting at the end.