American Hunt

A group of attractive young friends sees their weekend in the woods turn to bloody horror when they wake from camping to find their “hosts” are armed to the teeth, giving them a ten-minute head start before they are hunted and killed. High Octane Pictures brings to the screen Aaron Mirtes feature film American Hunt about the delights and downfalls of hunting the most dangerous prey: The American Millenial.  

The plot is mostly boilerplate cut/paste of any number of films where people are the hunted. Tempting to call it a genre, but it’s more of a theme. This film provides a few new twists to update the idea. Levi (Taylor Novak), the handsome older sibling of two psycho human-hunting brothers, uses dating apps to lure young women as prey. 

“…they wake from camping to find their ‘hosts’…giving them a ten-minute head start before they are hunted and killed.”

The payoff of the story is reductive and could be spoilered with a few poorly chosen words, which we’ll avoid here. With character names like Memphis (Brad Belemjian) and Pastor Greene (David Ditmore), you know you’re in for some stereotype shortcuts.  It’s maddening for anyone who’s spent significant time in the flyover to see how people in those areas are portrayed in films, which is very rarely with any authentic accuracy. 

Slightly related side note: there’s a film out soon called Dark Waters, set in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Mark Ruffalo plays a lawyer. Exciting stuff for an area that doesn’t get much love, however, in the trailer Ruffalo has pasted this blank look on his face, and he speaks like he has a learning disability. The film industry needs to figure out that rural people are not all mentally challenged. Also, see Jodie Foster’s ridiculous accent in The Silence of the Lambs. This is not a new problem.