The Head Hunter

The amazing beauty of The Head Hunter is the minimalist storytelling that creates a high impact effect with virtually no extraneous dialogue or superfluous characters. The Father and his role are clearly defined as a singular, over-riding purpose; yet the Land and the Time in which he lives in is kept vague, building the larger-than-life mythology of the film. This story reminds me of the first, simple stories I read in grade school (Beowolf, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) that set my imagination on fire and created a lifelong yearning for reading.

That being said, the action fans, gore aficionados, and special effects/CGI devotees are going to be disappointed. This is a low budget film, and from the outset, it's evident the producers were more focused on the quality of the storytelling than shiny bells and whistles. If you watch the film with this managed expectation, you are going to be more apt to enjoy it. After all, at one hour eleven minutes, it's a tale that moves along nicely.

A man living in the woods with just one purpose, to seek revenge on the beast that killed his daughter.

A very simple story visualised in a simple way. You can either like the simplistic way it is told or not.

The Pros: Like I said, beautiful scenes, the visualisation is nicely done, some beautiful shots of the landscape and snow. I liked the idea of telling a story without much dialog, just a visualisation of some actions being taken and because of those actions you know already what is going on. The main character looked cool. You can see that a good amount of attention was given to the props. The music and sound effects are really adding to the ambiance of the movie.

The Cons: Like I said beautiful scenes but, I could not get into the story or into the tense moments that were created. And I think there were a couple of reasons that caused that.

Character

I could not feel or root for the main character, although he looked very cool. This was because of how he gave his daughter gifts at her grave. The grave is one of only 2 moments in the movie that we can see how much he loved her and therefore needed the revenge, but it felt as if it was just a matter of fact.

Lack of complexity in the actions.

In my opinion if there is lack in dialog, then the actions must make the audience think and that happened, but you could figure out what was going to happen pretty fast and that left the tense moments empty.

I liked the approach of this movie, but I couldn't get into it. Therefore I gave it a 5

A medieval father searches for the beast that killed his daughter.

Ok. So, this is a low budget film but it is filmed well. Some of the landscape scenes are very nice. This is supposed to be horror but I'm a bit of a horror buff and it wasn't horror for me. The biggest problem I have is that the story is so vague. You know what is going on and you sorta know why but it lacks detail. You have no backstory and for me, that is what draws me in and causes me to invest in the characters. The effects were passable but key moments were shot in low lighting and it couldn't be seen well.

It isn't awful but it is short, extremely about being "in the moment" and the scenic shots were good. If that sounds like something you are about, check it out.

The visuals are amazing, you wouldn't guess this movie is shot on such a low budget. Story and character is paper thin but that's kind of the point. It's not about the action but the main character and his journey. The film is indeed a horror fantasy but it also plays as a mystery, the cuiorsity of what happened is what keeps you watching. The lead actor does a phonemeal job with only his expressions and without much dialogue. The last 20 minutes are a bit of a downgrade in regards to the rest of the movie but I would still recommend. The ending will stick with you long after you've finsihed watching it. It's a monumental task to try to create a fantasy movie on a low budget since the genre requires a lot of expensive visuals but this is a more than worthwhile effort, I hope more movies are made in this style.

This film is far better than its current IMDB rating.

For the budget this film is insane... great locations, cinematography and costume design. It's very atmospheric and at times reminded me of The Revenant, you get a real sense of the cold, harsh, isolated existence this character faces.

Like others have said its no action packed blockbuster. They clearly didn't have budget to rock out a big monster battle with CGI effects, so rather than ruin the film with a low budget attempt they made smart choices and spent the money wisely.

Nothing about this film felt low budget, the character design is amazing I would buy a hot toy figure of this dude tomorrow seriously!!