Four attractive young people pick the wrong wooded area and time period (it’s the summer of 1974 – just don’t go out at all, guys!) to go hiking and wind up sadistically tormented and murdered by an anonymous, silent group of local lunatics in this commendable, intense Norwegian take on TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (complete with scared hitchhiker) and the WRONG TURN franchise.
David Hess’ haunting central song from LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (a song-score also quoted in CABIN FEVER) accompanies a retro-styled title sequence that befit’s the film’s appropriate, cell phone-free 70’s backdrop. And, although CHAINSAW is the obvious inspiration for its more visceral elements, the trio of ordinary-looking beer bellied string vest-wearing rednecks at the core of the movie are obviously indebted to the non horror movie that started this whole backwoods terror trend, DELIVERANCE.
Director Patrik Syversen’s rough and ready hi-def shooting technique cannily appropriates the look of 70’s urbanoia horror : it’s grainy, washed out, battered-looking and shot in long, discomforting takes. The efficiency of the film’s style coupled with some fine performances, gruelling gore and an unrelenting pace help overcome the fact that we’ve made many trips to this particular well in the three or more decades since the John Boorman classic.
MANHUNT employs the staple ingredients of this particular sub-genre : hostile locals, rundown gas stations, an ending with a twist involving an earlier-seen innocuous character, a resilient final girl driven to near-hysteria and an oppressive, effectively used woodland setting. Along the way, there are nice touches, including the decision to set the entire film in broad daylight and a relatively low-key final shot that director Syversen holds to haunting effect in what he has referred to as his LONG GOOD FRIDAY moment.
Animal trap mutilations, grim stabbings, barbed wire bindings and real grim stuff with a blasted foot combine to give the movie a forceful, gruesome impact, while the handheld camerawork adds to the urgency. Norwegian horror is starting to look pretty healthy, and this one shares the qualities (likeable characters, suspenseful situations) of last year’s slasher hit COLD PREY. Evocative original score by Simon Boswell.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
