Shudder Secrets: Night of the Hunted

Considering Night of the Hunted was directed by Franck Khalfoun (Maniac remake) and produced by Alexandre Aja, maybe it should come as no surprise just how unnerving and bloody this film is. Yet, even knowing the long-term collaborators who made this film doesn’t make the watch any easier. Night of the Hunted isn’t set in some fantastical world. It’s a gritty film, rooted in political divisions, where a lone woman at a gas station faces off against a sniper. It’s indeed a matter of life and death.

While Night of the Hunted traffics in language like fake news and vaccine mandates, the arguments the sniper and protagonist Alice (Camille Rowe) have are far more nuanced than that. This isn’t a black and white film. Likely, it’s one that viewers will think about long after the credits roll. There are no easy answers here, and Khalfoun and the co-writers take great pains to ensure neither character is one-note.

Night of the Hunted’s Depiction of Raw Violence

The bullets whiz through the air and claim one victim after the next by the movie’s 15-minute mark. It isn’t spoiling much to say that anyone who stops at the gas station, where Alice is under siege by an unknown assailant, faces grave danger. Gas stations late at night are creepy. This one has a huge billboard near it that reads, “God is Nowhere.” This fits the movie’s grim tone, considering Alice has no easy way out. Anyone who stops risks a bullet in the head or back. There’s even one scene where cop cars rush down the street, but they’re off to another scene and don’t save Alice. Indeed, God is nowhere. She’s the only one who can pull herself out of such a dire situation.

At first, the shootings seem so senseless. Yet, even if headlines report one mass shooting after the other, the level of violence in Night of the Hunted is no easy watch. There’s one potent scene where the sniper mauls down a husband and wife, while the granddaughter watches from the car. Everything about it feels so cruel, but maybe that’s the point. Mass shootings have become routine, with innocents slaughtered. This gunman casually kills and hardly scoffs at it. In fact, he even mocks the elderly couple and says that type of sentimentality and love for each other will die off with their generation. Talk about a warped worldview.

Night of the Hunted’s Tricky Politics

It doesn’t take too long for the sniper’s motives to become clear. He knows that Alice works for a pharmaceutical company. More specifically, she’s the VP of marketing. More than once, he rails against vaccine mandates and claims it’s her fault millions have died. Yet, when she utters the c-word (that being conspiracy) he says that’s just a way to silence those who have different viewpoints than the norm. Time and time again, the sniper also says he just wants people to leave him alone.

This back-and-forth between the gunman and Alice creates a heart-thumping ride. Neither character holds easy views, but to be clear, the movie doesn’t come out in favor of the sniper’s views. There isn’t an anti-vax message in here, but it does treat political and ideological differences with nuance. At times, the sniper comes across like a right-wing nut, especially when he rants about vaccines and claims he’s doing this for “the truth,” whatever that may be. However, he addresses other issues, such as cancel culture, noting that something someone did when they were much younger can resurface on social media and kill their career.

That said, one of the film’s main flaws is that the sniper’s identity is never revealed. He mostly talks through a walkie-talkie. Even when he descends the “God is Nowhere” sign, he’s masked. Alice questions if he lost his job and health insurance, but he never quite answers.

If anything, much of the conversations the two characters have resemble the digital divide, the back and forth on social media. Heck, the sniper is like a troll, unwilling to reveal himself, claiming he’s willing to die for the cause. Yet, he won’t even tell Alice who he is. He hides behind his anonymity. Maybe that’s part of what this film is trying to do, show the political divisions, worsened by social media. The sniper is like online vitriol personified, though one who takes deadly actions, who leaves his keyboard behind for bullets. Yet, he’s never willing to unmask.

Night of the Hunted Offers No Easy Answers

There’s no scene in which Alice or the sniper cast differences aside and come to a kumbaya moment. That would be too easy. Instead, Night of the Hunted is more interested in raising questions and encouraging the viewer to think about them. By the time the credits roll, there are no real answers here. What solutions are there to the tumult we’ve all experienced since 2016? Even Alice admits at one point that the last few years “have been hell.” Is there anyone, on the left or right, unlikely to agree with her?

Night of the Hunted grounds itself in the political divisions of the day and the real-world violence that’s a symptom of a teetering democracy. It’s not an easy watch, but the questions it asks are important. Rowe turns in a gripping performance, and this is one nail-biting thrill ride.

The film arrives on Shudder on October 20. Keep updated on the streaming service’s latest releases by following my Shudder Secrets column.