Climate of the Hunter

It's not really a horror or a mystery. More like an episode of Days of Our Lives set in The Twilight Zone. The 70s vibe is perfect in every way. I'd generally prefer something with more horror, action or bizarre narrative, like Terry Gilliam's work, but Climate of the Hunter is well made and offers something different.

Climate of the Hunter is an utterly perplexing film. It's stuffed with fantastic performances, bizarre humour, and a premise that is incomprehensible. This film is such a complete and utter vision. The costumes, the music, the lighting, and the bizarre 70's food... this is more then just a pastiche, this feels like an alien displaced from time decided to make a movie about humans.

Alma (Ginger Gilmartin) and her sister Elizabeth (Mary Buss) welcome their friend Wesley (Ben Hall) after twenty years absence at a remote house in the woods. Wesley could be a vampire. They are joined by Wesley's son after father and son have a strange discussion about Wesley's wife.

My favorite scene is the son reading his story to the group. It is the highlight of the movie. It is awkward, strange, and intense. I would have liked for the movie to finish off over that night. The situation is not going to get any better than that. It is creepy and disturbing at the moment. The movie needs to milk that and finish it off with mounting intensity.

I happen to like movies in which people talk a lot and speak in a way that people don't really speak. Relationship movies that unfold. I stumbled on this on AMC Plus and I'm glad I did. What a weird, uncomfortable, but intriguing movie. The first flashback with the wife and the son is super creepy. Nice use of washed out green tones in that scene, like a 90s Japanese horror movie. I don't want to spoil too much and it's hard to get to the character count without doing it so I'll just say I also appreciate these kinds of indie films in which you don't recognize the actors from anything. It's easier to believe they are really the characters.

There's not many perfect films in the world but this is one of them. From wardrobe to dialogue to acting to music to direction to cinematography to, well, everything. It fails in no area. The tone is perfectly absurd, kitschy, beautiful and dense. The writing is serious, comical, mysterious and magical. It's everything an independent film should be.