 When I watched the final ten minutes of the movie The Hunt three words came to mind immediately: Fucking Hell Yes!
Allow me to explain.
The Hunt is an independent horror film that takes place in the Oklahoma woods. It's the story of two men and a boy who go out to shoot an instructional video on how to stalk and hunt deer with a compound bow. Arriving on the property they've leased for the day, the three set out and soon stumble on a fenced area they didn't expect to find. Ignoring the warning signs posted, they wriggle under the fence at a low point and start stumbling on some strange things. Before the next sunrise, only one will survive.
First of all, The Hunt does something that originally annoyed me, but within 20 minutes intrigued me. The filmmakers use a nonlinear storytelling style to unravel the plot. This works because The Hunt goes beyond the usual "stick 'em in the woods and kill 'em" mentality by creating some real back story. Why is the cameraman such a full on head case? What kind of relationship does the boy have with his stepfather (the hunter in the video)? Who is the white-haired dude collecting information about their disappearance?
All of these questions were there to keep me interested while the trio got deeper and deeper into trouble. The only drawback to this is that it's unraveled using multiple camera styles (some grainy video, some professional shooting, I'll explain more below). That can get distracting, and the white-haired guy gets annoying after a while. He's a good actor but there are only so many disgusted looks you need to see before you realize that the script called for him to look frustrated for the full 90 minutes.
 However, that's a small pet peeve. Here's another thing that works in The Hunt's favor, and please, don't stop reading when you see the next eleven words.
This movie has a very Blair Witch Project feel to it. There. I said it. That's not a bad thing, though. Think what you will about the Blair Witch Project, but the one thing that it did do well was prey upon your sense of being lost in the woods and not knowing what was out there. The Hunt captures that feeling reasonably well, but it does it without the bullshit shaky camerawork and without a bunch of whining and crying. The story is told from a mix of footage shot by the trio  of characters and footage shot by the filmmakers. However since the trio is supposed to be shooting a professional hunting documentary, their footage isn't a shaky mess.
Finally, none of this would work as well as it does without some pretty solid acting by mostly unknown actors. The main three actors have done some CSI and Babylon 5 work but nothing much more of note. None of the performances feel forced or overacted (with the possible exception of the white-haired guy). All told, the performances are solid and actually get you to care about the characters just enough to make you stick with the slow pace of the plot.
 This brings us to my final remark. This movie unravels at its own pace, and that's actually a good thing as long as you don’t look at the timer on your DVD player. At one point, I paused it to get a drink, and my wife (who was not watching with me) asked me how much longer it was. I told her it was 90 minutes and that I thought I was about 45 minutes into it. She looked at the DVD player and corrected me. It only had 25 minutes left. At that point I started preparing for the worst. After all, there were only 25 minutes, and as far as I could tell, they weren't even close to wrapping this thing up.
Then the final ten minutes hit and I uttered the words: Fucking Hell Yes!
That's all you need to know. The Hunt is a worthwhile rental and actually could be the launching point for a sequel with plenty of questions left to answer. Personally I would love to see another film with the action of the final act stretched out over a full 90 minutes.
Someone… anyone… please make this happen.
 Presentation
There's not much to say here beyond that this is all shot on video and it looks pretty damn good. The sound is also fine. Actually one of the better tension effects in this film is when the audio flips between the standard film sound and the mix of audio the trio can hear through their camera.
Extras
Well, we get a theatrical trailer that I must say doesn't really do anything at all for me, but it's nice to have. That's accompanied by a featurette on the making of the The Hunt. This one is pretty fucking boringand not really worth your time unless you know someone in the production. I probably made it about two thirds of the way through it before getting up to get another Jack Daniels. When I came back it was over. I didn't feel the need to replay what I missed.
The Bottom Line
The Hunt is a good indie horror flick. It's not a gorefest, so if that's your bag you may want to stay away. It's also not a slasher or monster movie on par with many straight to video titles. This one is a bit different, and for some reason, I really dug it. I'll be recommending it to friends and I'd recommend it to you also.
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