The Hunted

TL;DR: I really enjoyed this one! Solid acting, pacing, atmosphere, and cinematography. Unfortunately, it commits so major FF sins. (Strong 6/10)

"The Hunted" is the directorial debut of Josh Stewart (who also wrote the script and stars in the film). He crafts a dense and moody atmosphere that creates a lasting sense of dread and keeps you glued to the screen. The film manages to be pretty creepy and features two main characters who are, thankfully, not incompetent fools. I was impressed and relieved to see that this wasn't going to be just another typical found footage horror. The script is smart and knows exactly what it wants to be/do. I was never bored and never felt like I was watching an amateur project.

Also, the audio is mixed extremely well! Every bit of audio feels like it was captured by the camera's internal mic. Never once did they just slap a bunch of digital sound effects on in post. At least not that I could tell. This is one thing that helps the atmosphere feel so tense and creepy.

However...

There are 2 key flaws:

1. While the mood is dense, visceral and creepy... Every. Single. Scare... is a jump scare (with large variations/sudden jumps in volume). Yes, the atmosphere is near perfect, but its such a shame that all that build up, all that tension and all of the attention to detail is spoiled by cheap jump scares with little variety. They had so much going for them and they resorted to the oldest trick in the book. Dear filmmakers, jump scares are not "scary." All they do is startle you, not terrify you. So much potential wasted on lazy jumps.

2. For some reason, they used a freakin soundtrack... Why, why, why do so many found footage directors keep slapping on soundtracks? This film could have easily stood on its own without it and it would've been better for it. I will give it credit and say that it was fairly unique and fit the theme of hunters in the woods. But soundtracks Do Not belong in FF. If you want to use a soundtrack, use a traditional narrative style of filming. Period.

Despite these major gripes, I still think the film had enough going for it to mostly transcend its flaws. But it had the potential to be so much more than the final product.

Overall, I'd recommend it to any FF junky. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it is well above the average FF indie flick. Especially when you consider that this is the director's first feature film.

I went with this movie not knowing much about it, so when I first saw it was POV\FF format I thought "Oh boy, not again" because last movie I saw as in fact a terrible found footage movie (not to be named here).

Then I saw Josh Stewart and thought "Ok it might not be that bad".

and to my surprise, this turned out to be not only really good P.O.V. movie, but also a very effective horror movie. Even bigger surprise was "Directed and written by Josh Stewart". Starring in all those horror movies recently really payed of for Josh, because he clearly picked up few tips on what scares the people... and that's coming from a horror veteran who nearly lost all hope in new(er) horror movies for relying either on too much jump scares or too much gore, or just plain old stupid guys doing stupid things in stupid screenplays, surviving only because script said so.

The movie is about two guys, one of them being hunter Jake (Josh Stewart), the other his friend journalist Stevie (Ronnie Gene Blevins), who go out on private ranch to hunt animals and record it so Jake would get enough footage for his planned hunting show... Then they soon realize they are the prey and something else in the woods in hunting them.

Honestly, if you want to be surprised like I was, don't read anything about this movie. Don't even read cast listing (it gives too much).

It's has good atmosphere which is missing a lot from new horror movies, it fallows "the less is more" logic which works well for the movie, it's really tense in "night in the woods" scenes and it becomes very tense and creepy when things finally get going.

Now, Josh clearly got influenced by Blair Witch Project (maybe unintentionally) because he manages to capture similar mood of that movie (only better in my opinion) and feeling of unease while characters are all alone in the woods surrounded by pitch black of the woods.

It's a horror movie that relays heavily on the sounds, which is perfect. Think original The Haunting. You'll hear that sound and know something is there, something is right in front of the characters. Sometimes it's falls alarm, sometimes it's there.

Big thanks to Josh for not relying on jump scares too much, there are few of them, but they are not annoying like in most of modern horror movies. They are not accompanied by loud orchestra music that will pierce your ears, they come naturally and usually have good build up before it, so they are earned and you as viewer are satisfied. (first jump scare is actually really good because there's a huge build up to it)

"The Haunted" reminded me of John Carpenter's "The Thing" at one point. Josh was very effective in building up tension where most of the tension comes from expecting things to happen, just like J. Carpenter played with us with "The Thing". You knew Thing was going to pop up eventually, it was just a question when it will show up. It's a same thing here. You know it's going to happen, it's just a matter of time when it will happen.

so this reminds me, why are you still and actor Josh? You're a good actor in my opinion, but you're even better director, and horror director on top of that and all of us horror fans know we need more of those these days!

Great directorial debut.

The plot is actually fairly good. Two men set out on a hunting trip filming in an attempt to start a new hunting show.

"I just hope we have enough to show the programming people what our show would look like" - Jake

Hopefully better camera work than what's showcased in The Hunted.

Frequently subjects are out of focus. Poor lighting. Extremely noisy footage. Somethings looked kinda like a poorly done green screen.

Despite the horrible camera work, I thought the movie was fairly scary. It builds tension well, the screams caused me to jump several times!

The acting was done fairly well. The dialog felt organic. The plot was great. I think this may have been a little too ambitious for the budget, or skillset.

Overall The Hunted is definitely worth the watch.

I had high hopes for this movie. I really liked "The Blair Witch", and I thought that this effort might be reasonably close. Unfortunately, I was wrong. You would be better served to watch an episode... ANY episode... of the television series "Mountain Monsters".

I'm a huge fan of horror, found footage, and Josh Stewart. How could The Hunted not be good? It has all the right ingredients: a creepy setting, two promising actors, and a nice low budget feel. Somehow, The Hunted is just plain awful. There is no sugar coating it. The script feels like a skeleton. The "screams" that scare these two throughout the movie are just plain not scary. Why is there music in a found footage film? You don't need suspenseful music to create a mood - let the situation speak for itself. The ending is frustrating and enough to make you question why you even bothered watching in the first place. Josh Stewart, always reliable, is actually kind of bland here. It is probably to blame on the characters, which feel as hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny. I wouldn't have minded not seeing the entity stalking these two if the film itself had come out on top in the end and really delivered some great moments. The film was clearly heavily influenced by The Blair Witch Project: if you're going to imitate one of the greats, you had better be bringing something original and awesome to the mix. The one and only compelling aspect of this movie lies in the ghost story told during the middle. Sorry, Josh, but it's time to go back to the drawing board for your next movie. I'm rooting for you!