Season of the Hunted (2003)

Rugged Vietnam veteran mechanic Frank (an intense and excellent performance by Muse Watson), his amiable firefighter buddy Steve (a likable turn by Timothy Gibbs), wiseguy Al (Lou Martini, Jr.), eager young Lenny (Wass Stevens), and smartaleck Charlie (an amusingly sharp-tongued Tony Travis) run afoul of a vicious family of crazed cannibal hillbillies while embarking on a hunting expedition in the deep woods. Director Ron Sperling relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains a suitably tough and gritty no-nonsense tone throughout, and punctuates the grisly story with startling moments of extremely raw and gruesome in-your-face violence. Phillip "Chick" Faicco's script may be trite, but it still possesses the right wicked ingredients to make for a pleasingly harsh and hard-edged Grade B fright flick. The game no-name cast all deliver acceptable performances. The main characters are well-drawn and engaging. The rednecks are a colorful bunch of sick hick degenerates: Matthew Cowles as grizzled patriarch Mitch, Raynor Scheine as the drawling, laid-back Roy, Patrick Cooley as hulking, boastful chromedome brute Jed, Peter Linari as creepy mute Ben, Lorin Donadio as sexy spitfire Bobbi-Jo, Jefferson Slinkard as the scraggly Wilbur, and Duke Valenti as leering behemoth Jimbo. Ben Dolphin's effectively grainy cinematography and the funky, syncopated score by Ed Terry and Ron Sperling both do the trick. Better still, there's a handy helping of ghastly gore and a decent smattering of gratuitous female nudity and soft-core sex. While this picture starts out really slow and talky, it kicks into thrilling gear once the hunt is underway and overall rates as a welcome and refreshing departure from the usual teens in jeopardy fare. A cool little low-budget horror outing.

Truly hilarious "horror" film.Here's a short synopsis: a bunch of hunting hick friends go on a hunting trip, but end up being hunted one by one themselves by cannibalistic hunters.It's all really lame. The flashbacks to Vietnam are especially tasteless; they look like they were filmed in the director's backyard. The acting is often laughable (watch for when one of the hunting friends gets hit by an arrow; his facial expressions and the weird gurgle-sounds he conjures are absolutely hilarious). Half the time, it looks like it was shot through a paper towel tube. It's just awful in nearly every single way.If you want a laugh, "Season of the Hunted" will provide you the opportunity. I found it in my local rental store, and I encourage you to look out for it.

I rented this movie with the hopes of seeing an interesting and original take on "The Most Dangerous Game". I quickly realized I was going to get neither. Bad acting, bad direction and extremely bad videography. I got the impression that this was made by a group of friends with a video camera. To start with, the quality of the film/video changes from shot to shot. Some scenes look like they were shot on film, then the next seems to be video, the next looks like it was taken from a news helicopter. And I don't know if this was done deliberately or not, but the "good guys" that get killed are not very well developed, to the point of being obnoxious. You don't feel very sorry for them when they are butchered, and in the case of one of them, you almost cheer. I realize they wanted these guys to be realistic, but when the main "hero" turns into a pile of jello when the s**t hits the fan, you know the movie is in trouble. I could go on and on about what is wrong with this film. Just do yourself a favor and skip this one, unless you don't mind pissing away 1 1/2 hours of your life.

A buddy and I rented this this evening believing the DVD cover's statement of "Wrong Turn meets Cabin Fever". Boy, were we let down.*SPOILERS* This is the story of five friends from New York City that book a guided bow hunting trip in upstate New York. The story takes a twist when it's revealed that the "guides" are really cannibalistic rednecks who are only interested in hunting the "most dangerous game".It doesn't take long before the hunted become the hunters, and... well, you get the idea. Wackiness ensues.I always try to find positive points in films when asked for a review, so, here goes...I think that the plot was decent- it sounded interesting and seemed pretty original. I think that, given a bigger budget and a few rewrites of the script, this could have been a decent film.Also, the acting by some of the supporting stars, although not of Oscar caliber, was pretty decent. Interestingly, it was the interaction between the two male leads that was the least convincing. I'd bet that if they had better material, they'd have done better work though.If you rent this expecting it to be on par with Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind, not only will you feel let down, you should also reevaluate your movie-choosing ability.But, if all you are looking for is simple-minded fare that doesn't require too much thought to match it's senseless violence, then, well, this one barely satisfies.Overall, it was predictable and poorly executed. Looks like a serious attempt at film by the producers of soft-core porn. 2/10