User reviews

An alcoholic drifter goes on the run after upsetting meth dealers, he turns up in a small town only to find himself hunted by the locals in a sick game of cat and mouse.

Very professionally made and fantastically directed I was fairly impressed with Happy Hunting early on. The concept though not original was handled well and everything seemed to be going well.

It has pacing issues but nothing too major, the issue really comes with a pointless side story and an ending that will really quite stun you. Why? Because it's bafflingly stupid, really stupid.

Up until that point for the most part I was enjoying Happy Hunting and thought it'd walk away with a comfortable rating, alas that ending is so counterproductive it damages the film.

Such a shame, whoever wrote that needs to sit in the corner and think about what he's done.

The Good:

Very well directed

The Bad:

That ending

I was very interested in 'Happy Hunting' once I found out it was directed and written by Mel Gibson's son Louie Gibson. Mel is one of the finest directors working in Hollywood today so I thought it would be very interesting to see if his son possessed any of the same talent. So does he? Possibly, it was harder to work out than I had anticipated. 'Happy Hunting' is quite a strange film. It sets out to be strange, but I think managed to be even stranger than intended and in unintended ways. I would say I enjoyed it, without loving it.

There's a point halfway through the film where you will likely ask yourself how are they going to stretch this out for another 45 minutes? They manage it though and while I wouldn't say the pacing of the film is its strongest point, it's not a bad effort considering the way the film is set up. I also liked some of the creativity used in certain scenes. This is the main indication to me that Louie Gibson might have some real talent because creativity in film making seems to be the thing most directors struggle with today. It is sorely lacking in many modern films, however not this one. I wouldn't call this a "must-see" but if you stumble across it on Netflix it's worth a watch and you'll get basically what you're promised.

Its strangely entertaining to watch, but at the same time god dang awful.

I am writing a review of this film again as my old review got deleted somehow. So this time i will make it a short review. Saw this on a dvd. As a fan of survival movies especially set in the backwoods, deserts, outback n snowcovered land, i enjoyed viewing this. I love movies set in the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan.

This movie has less body count n a bit slow pacing, but the overall product is pretty enjoyable for genre fans. Of course, the plot once again lifted from The Most Dangerous Game.

Had some solid scenes and a decent story with some blood but just wasn't that fun to watch. Should have been better.

Druggie loser Warren Novak needs to go to Mexico to meet his child. He gets involved in a drug sale which goes terribly wrong. He runs away and finds himself in a small town near the border. He and other troubled souls are taken captive by the town. The town is reliving their hunting traditions and they're hunting the most dangerous animal.

I don't care that much about Warren. The drug sale is very memorable, but there isn't much else. The premise has been done plenty. This is not doing something completely new. Nothing is really exciting me, but it's not horrible. I feel a bit bland about this.

Seen at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival 2017 (website: www.bifff.net). Starting with an original premise, it has even more original developments in its favor. Of course, the prey has slim chances to survive as per the initial setup of the hunting "game", yet it takes some time for the villagers to learn that the prey this time does not give in so easily as in previous years. In a series of scenes, switching from prey to prey, one falling after the other, yet this time with victims on both sides. Luckily for us viewers, it all went differently from previous years. Alcohol plays an important side role, primarily (of course) for main character Warren throughout the running time, but he also makes productive use of alcohol near the finale.

Entertaining throughout, apart from Warren's alcohol addiction and related cold turkey phenomena, and despite the unnecessary violence, the latter not shown in all gory detail yet suggested with not much left to outguess. For example, when someone's head is beaten with a baseball bat, the movement of the bat is clearly shown but not the ultimate effects on the receiving end. A concession towards content advisory ratings?? It won't help, as the whole movie is riddled with unmitigated violence all over. But it is not Horror in the old-fashioned and literal sense of the word, so no dark corners nor ancient buildings, no monsters nor ghosts, only ordinary (yet redneck) people operating in broad daylight (or some at night) with destructive intentions.

All in all, casting and acting make this movie stand out in the first place, in addition to the original plot with many unexpected developments.

Okay I wrote a medium sized review and tried to submit it and the internet froze up and it apparently got lost so that is lame.

So not writing that again so long story short.

I liked it. End was good! Chris was a great character. Haha. 7/10

Yet another movie that kinda had a good plot idea (though admittedly its been done much better 100 times before) but then the writers either ran out of ideas, money, and/or ingenuity and the ending just leaves us unsatisfied with some thinly veiled "political leftist anti-American commentary" that quite frankly is more offensive than anything any right-wing nut could ever devise. Anyway, it has its moments, but I'd skip this one.

Gun toting rednecks on a kill crazy rampage- the occasional riot or manhunt is surely their right under one amendment or another. No? Unbelievable in this day and age. Silly movie with a sheriff not just apathetic but complicit and orchestrator of the redneck sporting event. Federal law - nah don't recognise it. Just choose your victims and hunt em down. I mean....they got a head start so that seems fair. Ridiculous right? Right? Capitol idea - let's do it. Oh...you did already.

When you're too lazy to do something original, this is what you end up with

Nothing good to see in that. Total waste of time. Save yourself, move on.

The "hunting humans for sports"-formula is one of the oldest, yet most consistent formulas in horror, cult, and exploitation cinema. This thrills-guaranteed sub-genre delivered a landmark classic already 90 (!) years ago, with "The Most Dangerous Game", but also still very recently, with Craig Zobel's "The Hunt" in 2020. And during the in-between period of nine decades, there were several more highly enjoyable and often downright eccentric variations, like "Blood Camp Thatcher" (1980), "The Hunting Party" (1971), "The Woman Hunt" (1973), and "Surviving the Game" (1994).

"Happy Hunting" is a nicely fitting addition to the long but pleasant list. It's not exceptionally good or highly memorable, but it does feature the obligatory excessive violence, loathsome characters, and creative death-traps. What makes the film slightly special, perhaps, is that it blends the hunting-humans concept with another traditional cult/horror sub-genre, namely that of the "creepy little town with a secret". The hunting game is presented as an annually returning festive event at a remote Texan border town called Bedford Flats. The sneaky locals, led by the authorial Sheriff, round up dubious passers-by and even their own misbehaving fellow town members, and let them loose in the desert with a small head start. In this year's edition, the alcoholic drug-addict Warren Novak, who was already on his way to Mexico for some vague reason, is the only participant capable of fighting back.

The first half is slow and rather tedious, notably because protagonist Warren Novak is a very anti-sympathetic character himself. You don't really care for his motivations to travel to Mexico, and his constant mumbling whilst drinking heavily makes the dialogs difficult to understand. The fact he's such a thug makes the actual hunt more exciting, though, since you don't really care who wins. Both the hunters and the preys are total scum, so as long as the bloodshed is outrageous & plentiful, it's perfectly fine!

I have never felt compelled to write a review before but this film has. I wouldn't classify this film as a horror genre more like an Action/Horror and in that order. Action as it is always moving with action styled scenes and horror in the fact of the horror of being hunted down by a bunch of strangers. This is is how you do a low budget film. It shows you do not need tons of blood and gore and suspense to create a great film (although it will satisfy most blood lusts to a point). The acting from such unknown actors is above par and the concept is (although the idea of hunting others for sport has been done) original and well written. It is a believable idea and was executed brilliantly. I have watched most of the horror films to come out this year and was left disappointed and wanting more yet this film although not technically horror has left me with the feeling at least there were some films that made it this year. It is truly a film worth watching considering it didn't need to resort to elaborate special effects and lots of sex. In fact the effects are minimal and there is no sex at all. All in all a great film to watch, just a shame it did not get the theatre time and recognition it deserves.

Happy Hunting is a film that has some brutal kills, good effects, and interesting performances. It has a story that feels familiar but still manages to have a few twists and turns that are surprising. The movie that has it all; social commentary, horror, and intense bloodshed. This film even has a character that many people suffering through addiction can relate to, and maybe even learn from. I really believe that the movie is part of The Purge universe, the events take place specially after the events of The Purge: Election Year.

As many others have said on here, not a bad movie. It takes the surviving the game premise and makes it slightly more realistic to me. But it's still not very likely to happen. What I didn't understand was that if our hero and bad guys chasing him did not show up when they did, they would have only had 2 people to hunt. Is that really enough? Or do they have the hunt when they have enough people? It was a little bit different, our hero was not some white knight or former navy seal. I didn't like the ending at first, but then when I thought about it, at least ot was different. If you are looking for free movies, and come across this one, Which is what I do, Then take a shot. I have watched many a bad movie for free, Before reading reviews. Now I come to the reviews first. Well enough acted and just realistic enough to keep you interested.

A movie which definitely deserves more than its current IMDB rating (5.1 when I wrote this review). I also find it hard to say that this movie is in horror genre. I'd call it a neo Western with some drug and redneck moments.

It's ironic an Aussie and a Brit play leading roles in a movie which gives us a glimpse of redneck sporting activities in a a Western setting.

The lead, Martin Dingle Wall reminds us of Bill Paxton. It's sad to note that I watched this movie on13 October 2023, 3 days after Ken Lally passed who plays the main bad hombre.

Our protagonist Warren goes a mandatory cold turkey as he scrambles for his life chased by an angry redneck and then by a town-full of rednecks. Warren goes McGyver when he turns some kitchen items into alcohol. Though, in a previous scene he'd shot a bullet with his bare hand and a knife. The finale's nice when Warren realizes what an illegal immigrant told him before that there's bad hombres on the other side of the border and he literally dies laughing.