The Head Hunter is a creature feature that mainly focuses on a man’s every day ritual of slaying monsters to get vengeance for his dead daughter. It stars Christopher Rygh as Father and Cora Kaufman as Daughter. She is not in the movie for more than 3 min tops. My The Head Hunter (2018) movie review is below.
The first portion of the movie revolves around the warriors ritual of gathering food, cutting off monster’s heads, and cooking a weird dark substance that heals any wounds that he sustains while hunting down the said monsters. He also visits his daughters grave. Only 30 seconds at a time though and says the only words that he will utter throughout the entire movie. After this we get a bunch of sweeping shots of snowy landscapes that are at times quite beautiful. We return to the hunter’s cottage where things are dingy with a lot of jars with weird substances scattered throughout. It suits the character because he looks like a war hardened fighter. He has stained armor and long messy beard that makes him look very rugged.
Later in the movie, we learn more about the man’s obsession with taking down as many monsters as he can. This is not really developed but the audience will pick up the main reasons why he keeps fighting. Just get used to things not being explained in much detail – this will help you enjoy the movie more. We also see the guy being even more wounded as he is trying to keep up with constant monster sightings. How he knows of them I will not reveal. By the end we see some fighting but for one reason or another, the action scenes are almost non-existent. Most likely due to lack of budget.
The biggest complaint (and this could be interpreted as minor spoiler) I have about this movie is the action scenes. You have this giant warrior who is tough and knows how to take care of himself in a Medieval world full of monsters, yet you only show him fighting ONE monster? All the other times we see him carrying a sack that contains monster’s head but we have no idea how he takes it down. It’s basically director saying “trust us, this guy is cool and a bad ass.We can’t show you that, though”.
At the end when he does face a monster, it is so underwhelming that it almost ruins the experience. Think of him as fighting a one eyed ogres for most of the movie, and in the end, for the final scene, he fights an albino pig. That is not what happens but that is how I see it. Besides, it is a shaky, poorly lit scene that is an overall just a let down of something that was built up as big from scene one.The main character reacted as if it an enormous creature every time he hears anything about its presence in the forest.
Anyway, besides the final fight being a let down and lasting no more than 5 minutes (with less than 2 min of actual fighting), the movie is well developed and well paced. The main character, while not saying much, carries the movie quite well through his actions that we can understand. A lot of the things needed more development but for a solid B-film, this movie did a great job. It shows some action and a man’s thirst for vengeance in a dark world full of evil creatures and mayhem.
There is not a lot of jump-scares and the music kept cutting in and out every time some creatures were present, almost like a game. The movie needed more meat on the bones as it brings up concepts that are never explored further so we can get a better understanding of the man’s struggle. His daughter should have been given a few lines but instead we see her sleeping and once opening her eyes. I don’t get their bond (besides him being a father). This could have been explored just a tad bit more.
Overall a good movie with a great atmosphere, but it lacks action and development of certain concepts it presented us. Worth a look, for sure. It is certainly limited by budget but it uses its minimalistic style to set itself apart.
Thank you for reading my The Headhunter (2018) movie review
