HUNTER, HUNTER

Canada, 2020, 93 minutes, Colour.

Camille Sullivan, Summer H.Howell, Devon Sawa, Nick Stahl, Gabriel Daniels, Lauren Cochrane.

Directed by Shawn Linden.

For most of its running time, this Canadian film shows a family unit, out in the forest, hunting and surviving. The father is played by Devon Sawa, the mother with a very striking performance by Camille Sullivan. Summer H.Howell is the young daughter, apprenticed in hunting to her father, empathising with her mother.

There are visits to the town, to sell animals, but only meagre income. And there is the ever-present danger of a rapacious wolf. The film builds up tension in the atmosphere of the family and its lifestyle.

When the father goes out to try to track down the wolf, he comes across a strange situation with a number of dead bodies out in the forest. In the meantime, the wolf threatens mother and daughter but is frightened off by the mother screaming at it. But it also kills the family dog.

Noises in the night in the film changes its tone somewhat, a wounded stranger, Nick Stahl, found, brought into the house and tended by the mother. As might be guessed, he emerges as a suspicious character, highly violent and threatening mother and daughter.

In the meantime we see two of the local police, ordinary types, some banter between the two. When one of the officers finds the strangers abandoned car, he goes into the forest, finds the bodies but is hit by a hidden trap on his leg and then his hand. The next day, the other officer goes out in search and discovers the situation.

In the meantime, mother and daughter overturn the attacks of the stranger. Previously, the daughter had shown her mother how to skin an animal – which leads to a horrific culmination where the mother skins the stranger alive. Visually horrific, a shocking ending.