The first day at a new job can be stressful. Learning the layout of the building, the office politics, and a new way of working can be a lot to digest… New movie, Hunt Her, Kill Her however, proves that first days could be a lot worse…
Single mother Karen (Natalie Terrazzino) arrives at her new overnight cleaning job for her first shift. There she is given the quickest induction and orientation in history and is soon left alone inside the cavernous walls of an industrial factory. Unfazed, Karen starts work, but not long into her shift a van full of masked men arrive and their intentions are clear – they want to hunt her, and then kill her. Karen goes into fight or flight mode, and slowly creeps her way around, hoping to avoid detection. Inevitably, Karen ends up face-to-face with some of her pursuers and bloody battle commences.
Directed by the duo of Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen, Hunt Her, Kill Her is an overly familiar story. It is yet another film to follow in the blueprint set out by Die Hard, simply replacing an off-duty cop with a downtrodden cleaner and terrorists with a group of misogynistic men. During her induction Karen demonstrates the ability to think on her feet, helping her new colleague get a stain out of his shirt with a magic remedy. This scene is included so that the audience buys into her Macgyver skills later on. Except there is a big difference between a cleaner knowing what combination of chemicals will help remove a stain, and setting traps for those hunting her. Karen also moves around the building with considerable ease, something that doesn’t tally with this being her first night on the job.
The viability of Karen’s skill set aside, Swinson and Thiessen, generate some great moments of tension early on. As Karen begins to hide from her assailants, the audience’s hearts are in their mouths. Games of cat and mouse almost always work on screen and Hunt Her, Kill Her is no exception. The problem, however, is that it’s a trick that the filmmakers rely on for too long. Almost the entirety of the narrative is just Karen stalking around the building, hiding and fighting as her situation dictates. It quickly becomes repetitive and places the viewer perilously close to disengaging.
Furthermore, the story is kept quite bare. For a lead character, the audience is told little about Karen, other than that she is a single mother and her kid is at home ill, being looked after by a neighbour. There is an early encounter with two departing factory workers that reveals that she is in a terse custody battle with her ex, but outside of that, there is little to learn about her. Once her attackers arrive, any opportunity to find out more is lost as Karen goes into silent mode. An obvious survival tactic, her silence helps set the tense atmosphere, but it’s hard to connect with and care for a character that so little is known about.
With Karen rendered near-mute, it is left to the masked men to provide dialogue. Much of it is clunky and expositional, and when it isn’t that, it is painfully misogynistic. There are so many slurs about Karen’s gender and derogatory remarks about her that Hunt Her, Kill Her becomes infuriating to watch. Yes, the men represent an unfortunately very real portion of society, but the constant barrage of insults becomes uncomfortable, especially for any female-identifying audience members.
There are some technical flourishes that help smooth over some of the narrative cracks. Hunt Her, Kill Her, both opens and close with a tour of the empty factory. The opening camerawork silently manoeuvres around the building, teasing certain pieces of equipment that will come into play later. The first image on-screen is a ‘danger’ sign that immediately sets the tone; the ensuing factory tour helps the creepy sensations to set in. Then the final stalk through the building highlights the aftermath of Karen’s fight for survival, acting as a recap for the carnage witnessed. By spending the time to get to know the surroundings, Swinson and Thiessen set the factory up as its own character, one that is potentially the most interesting. It’s certainly the one whose layers are explored the most.
A low-budget riff on the Die Hard formula, Hunt Her, Kill Her is a valiant effort, though several missteps mean that it doesn’t quite capture the audience in the same manner. A story perhaps better explored within the framework of a short film, Hunt Her, Kill Her, quickly runs out of steam. Disappointing, but not dreadful, Hunt Her, Kill Her has great potential, but the overly repetitive narrative makes it stall early on and struggle to succeed.
Hunt Her, Kill Her
Summary
Solidly set-up tension makes way for monotonous repetition in the latest film to borrow the Die Hard formula.
Hunt Her, Kill Her was reviewed at FrightFest Glasgow 2023.
