This Heartbreaking Horror Movie Is One of Mike Flanagan’s Personal Favorites
I love a cinematic diamond in the rough. It’s such a rush to discover a well-made film that hasn’t found the audience it deserves. When I do unearth a filmic treasure, I usually make haste to share my discovery via my Dread Central column, The Overlooked Motel. As it turns out, Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan seems just as fond of an under-seen indie horror effort as I am. He curates a Letterboxd list of his favorite horror movies, and many of his picks are smaller titles that deserve a larger fanbase.
Speaking of that Letterboxd list, I recently noticed that Flanagan added an indie horror effort from 2020 to the lineup. I’m talking about the Devon Sawa-fronted wilderness horror Hunter Hunter. Nice work, Mike. That flick really made an impression on me. I actually need to pay it a repeat visit sometime soon.
I included Hunter Hunter in my annual ranking of my top 10 horrors of the year in 2020. Here’s an excerpt from that coverage: “Hunter Hunter really got to me with its sincere characterizations and its intense and gritty narrative. The film is thrilling and horrifying in equal measure. It also boasts strong and impressive female characters that are anything but damsels in distress. Not to mention, the ending surprised the hell out of me.”
Filmmaker Shawn Linden claims the sole screenwriting credit in addition to helming the project. Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, and Nick Stahl round out the picture’s small core cast.
The setup for this Mike Flanagan-endorsed Shocker is this:
A fur trapper (Sawa) leaves his wife and daughter (Sullivan and Howell) behind to kill a rogue wolf in the remote wilderness. But they soon become increasingly worried when a severely injured man (Stahl) shows up to disrupt their peaceful existence.
Where in the world(wide web) is Hunter Hunter streaming?
If you’re ready to experience this heavy horror drama for yourself, you can do exactly that. All you will need is a Shudder subscription. The film is streaming on the platform as of the publication of this post. Hooray for that!
That is just about all that I’ve got for you, for the time being. Make sure to stay tuned to the site for more off-the-beaten-path recommendations from your favorite creators in the genre film space. In the meantime, you are welcome to track me down on Threads to keep tabs on my comings and goings.
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