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‘Night Hunter’ Review: Botching the Detectives

This psycho-killer disaster juggles three equally incoherent plotlines.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Mysteries abound in David Raymond’s “Night Hunter,” perhaps none so pressing as how Stanley Tucci and Ben Kingsley were prevailed upon to join its flailing cast. Yet these household names (both condescending to their roles as, respectively, a police commissioner and a former judge) aren’t the only victims of this psycho-killer disaster: There’s also a casually expendable Nathan Fillion and a cinematographer, Michael Barrett, whose crisply chilling images deserve a worthier project.

Juggling three equally incoherent plotlines, a stony Henry Cavill ( abandoning the Superman suit ) plays Marshall, a divorced Minnesota detective who veers from lecturing his teenage daughter about online safety to leaving guns and crime-scene photographs in full view. Stupid law-enforcement behavior is endemic here, as Marshall’s colleague brings his new baby to work every day and is shocked when a suspect snatches it. Then there’s the young profiler ( Alexandra Daddario ) who learns that uncuffing a raving lunatic who kept a bunker stocked with kidnapped women (Brendan Fletcher, practically foaming at the mouth) might not have been her smartest move.

Elsewhere, Kingsley’s jurist and a young accomplice are staging honey traps for pedophiles before rearranging their testicles and cleaning out their bank accounts. What motivates this vigilantism is anyone’s guess: back stories are not Raymond’s forte, at least on the evidence of this witless first feature. Caught between a hero with no personality and a villain with way too much (Fletcher’s slobbering performance has to be seen to be believed), Raymond comforts himself with shots of people gazing pensively at clues and pulling grisly things from drains.

“The people I chase,” Marshall tells his daughter, “They live in the dark.” Unfortunately, the audience will be right there with them.

Night Hunter

Rated R for unsavory themes and uncontrolled urination. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.

Night Hunter Review

13 Sep 2019

Night Hunter

Thankfully, nobody has yet come up with the idea of packaging whole seasons of a Peak TV series as a feature film, but if they had, the results might look something like this uneven serial killer thriller, the feature debut of British writer-director David Raymond. It isn't short of ideas, but the relatively brief running time provides little opportunity for any of them to develop into a coherent narrative, to say nothing of any semblance of character development that might have made it engaging.

The third-act twist briefly brings the film to life, before it fizzles out in more predictable fashion.

His standout turn in Mission: Impossible – Fallout aside, Henry Cavill hasn't had much luck as a leading man either inside or outside the DC Extended Universe, and his character here is so thinly sketched he might as well have been credited as Bearded Cop. And when you can't find anything interesting to do with Stanley Tucci or Nathan Fillion , you know your movie is in trouble.

It's a pity, because the story has promise. There's the serial killer whom one cop believes suffers from multiple personality disorder, while the other thinks he's faking it to cop an insanity plea – surely a set-up for a Primal Fear -style battle of wits. Then there's the sanguine vigilante who argues that the 80% recidivism rate among serial sex offenders makes surgical castration the only logical choice to prevent them from re-offending. Finally, there's the third-act twist that briefly brings the film to life, before it fizzles out in more predictable fashion.

Perhaps the problem is that the procedural, slow-burn nature of serial killer thrillers are better suited to the small screen – they're serial killers after all – where shows such as True Detective have the luxury of time to develop their drip-drip narratives and characters' inner lives. Twenty-five years after the last great example of the subgenre ( Se7en , unless you count Zodiac ), it's about time someone hunted down a killer script.

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Night hunter.

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Common Sense Media Review

Generic, confusing, violent, grim sexual-predator thriller.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Night Hunter is a police thriller starring Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, and Alexandra Daddario about the attempt to catch a sexual predator. It's slow, confusing, and grim, and -- despite taking aim at male abusers -- it treats its female characters fairly poorly. The movie's strong,…

Why Age 17+?

Disturbingly violent themes and images. Suggestions of women being kidnapped, ke

Extremely strong, frequent language includes uses of "f--k," "s--t," "t-ts," "c-

Mention of teen girls' naked selfies on social media. A man removes his shirt wh

Any Positive Content?

Movie theoretically wants to condemn sexual predators, but it doesn't have faint

Rachel is often portrayed as a strong, independent female character who's trying

Violence & Scariness

Disturbingly violent themes and images. Suggestions of women being kidnapped, kept in cages, sexually abused. Woman shown locked in cage. Kidnapped baby shipped in cardboard box. Explanation of a man's castration. A character is chased through the woods; she throws herself off a bridge, lands in a logging truck. Mentions of rape. A man punches and kicks a woman. Character shot; several characters die. Guns and shooting. A character shoots himself in head; brief blood splatter. Hitting, punching, slapping. Raging, angry shouting. Exploding car. Car crash. Characters fall through an icy lake, drowning in freezing water.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Extremely strong, frequent language includes uses of "f--k," "s--t," "t-ts," "c--t," "f--ktard," "bitch," "d--k," "balls," "idiot."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Mention of teen girls' naked selfies on social media. A man removes his shirt while attempting to seduce a young woman. Woman unbuttons her shirt to show more cleavage. Mentions of adultery.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie theoretically wants to condemn sexual predators, but it doesn't have faintest idea what to do about their victims. Most other positive attributes are largely absent, and women are treated cluelessly (used as bait, in need of rescue, killed).

Positive Role Models

Rachel is often portrayed as a strong, independent female character who's trying to show empathy and understanding toward the bad guy rather than simply locking him away, but she's eventually thwarted by the story.

Parents need to know that Night Hunter is a police thriller starring Henry Cavill , Ben Kingsley , and Alexandra Daddario about the attempt to catch a sexual predator. It's slow, confusing, and grim, and -- despite taking aim at male abusers -- it treats its female characters fairly poorly. The movie's strong, disturbing violence includes descriptions of women being kidnapped, raped, and abused. An "abuse basement" is shown, with several cages, one of which a woman is inside. A baby is kidnapped and shipped in a cardboard box. There are guns and shooting, an exploding car, a car crash, threats, beating, guns, a vivid description of castration, a man shooting his own head off, and deaths. There are mentions of adultery and teens' nude selfies online, as well as other sex-related talk, a man removing his shirt in hopes of seducing a young woman, and a woman unbuttoning her shirt to reveal more cleavage. Language is extremely strong and frequent and includes "f--k," "s--t," "c--t," and much more. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In NIGHT HUNTER, police, led by Marshall ( Henry Cavill ), investigate a series of crimes committed by sexual predators -- but they're making slow progress. Meanwhile, Lara ( Eliana Jones ) and her guardian, former judge Cooper ( Ben Kingsley ), have set up a system to entrap the predators and catch them. But their latest target isn't so easy to nab, and Lara disappears. With Cooper's help, the police soon find her and uncover a long series of crimes, with many women having suffered at the hands of Simon ( Brendan Fletcher ). Profiler Rachel ( Alexandra Daddario ) tries to get to the bottom of his behavior, but time is running out, and before long, everyone's lives will be at stake.

Is It Any Good?

Overly serious, slow, clunky, and confusing, this generic thriller tries to take aim at sexual predators, but it ultimately can't shake its grim attitude toward its own female characters. As vicious as Night Hunter is toward its abusive male villains -- one is castrated -- it's equally clueless toward the women: They're used as bait, in need of rescue, or even shot and killed. Daddario's Rachel seems like a strong character, but although she's painted as more humane than Marshall, she's largely ineffectual. Likewise, for all of Lara's wisecracking, she's very easily kidnapped.

The men don't fare much better. Cavill gives an emotionless, one-note performance, while Kingsley and Stanley Tucci seem out of place, as if they suddenly woke up and found themselves in the wrong movie. And poor Nathan Fillion has nothing to do and disappears too quickly. There's even a cruel close call involving a baby. The directing debut of screenwriter David Raymond, Night Hunter is often puzzling in a bad way -- it's convoluted and jarring, with disorienting cinematography and editing. The result is a distinct lack of suspense (the movie's 99 minutes creep icily by) that matches the generic title.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Night Hunter 's violence . How did it make you feel? What makes some media violence more upsetting/disturbing than others?

How does the movie portray revenge? Why do you think that's such a popular theme for movies and TV shows?

How does the movie view its female characters? Do you consider any of them role models ?

What's the appeal of serial killer movies?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 6, 2019
• On DVD or streaming : October 8, 2019
• Cast : Henry Cavill , Alexandra Daddario , Ben Kingsley
• Director : David Raymond
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Saban Films
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 98 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : disturbing and violent content, language throughout, and some sexual references
• Last updated : July 7, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Night Hunter review – sicko serial killer, meet the vigilante castrator

Henry Cavill hunts a split-personality murderer in this throwaway throwback to the days of straight-to-video shlock

T hese days, most younger readers probably don’t even understand the meaning of “straight to video”. But back in the day, it was a label slapped on films, often genre fare, so unloved by even their rights holders that only contractual obligation ensured they would see the light of day. This crime thriller, with its lurid serial-killer conceit and a cast peppered with talents who must have just needed the money, is a nostalgic throwback to those straight-to-video guilty pleasures of yore.

Henry Cavill glowers manfully throughout as a hardened detective named, with on-the-nose nominative determinism, Marshall, pursuing a sicko in Minnesota who kidnaps and imprisons young women in his dank torture dungeon, damaging their hearing in order to play out his compulsions. The twist is that Marshall and his colleagues, including police commissioner Harper (a slumming Stanley Tucci) and forensic psychologist Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), appear to capture the killer within the first half-hour. He is a weedy gibbering shell of man named Simon (Brendan Fletcher, chewing carpet, linoleum, astrotur) who was himself the victim of terrible childhood trauma. Rachel reckons that Simon has a disassociative personality disorder and if she could get one of his alternate personalities to talk to her they could crack innumerable cold cases.

Meanwhile, Ben Kingsley plays a retired judge turned vigilante – with an absurdly sophisticated aptitude for hi-tech gadgets and seemingly unlimited financial resources – who is working with beauty bait Eliana Jones to lure sexual predators into their trap so they can castrate them. The storylines inevitably intersect. Of course, there’s a big daft twist that the writers of Scooby-Doo might have looked askance at. This is such twaddle it becomes kind of fun, except that there’s an uncomfortable feeling – as with many vigilante movies – that the film is revelling in the sexual violence and covering itself with the fig leaf of justice-seeking.

Night Hunter is released in the UK on 13 September.

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Home » Horror News » Night Hunter (Movie Review)

Night Hunter (Movie Review)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

PLOT: When a mentally impaired serial abductor/rapist/murderer is caught by a grizzled police detective, his spree of crimes mysteriously continues. Is he receiving help from the outside world or somehow conducting the crimes behind bars himself?

REVIEW: It’s never a great sign when a movie takes more than two years after it was shot to find a distribution date, which happens to be the case for David Raymond’s star-spangled debut feature, NIGHT HUNTER (WATCH IT HERE) , a deftly directed and well-performed thriller that starts off with perky intrigue, only to slump into near crippling, almost eye-rolling absurdity in the end through an overreliance on one too many gimmicks and pretty platitudinous finale. While the A-list cast certainly elevates the material, what is written on the page is still well below many of their standards, which means even great actors like Ben Kingsley and Stanley Tucci can only deodorize so much of the inherent problems found in the screenplay before an effluvious whiff takes hold by the third act. That said, for a frosty snow-sodden bone-chiller, there’s nary a dull moment in its brisk 92-minutes of consistent entertainment. I liken it to an elongated episode of The X-Files, which is to say the movie is quite amusing while you’re in the thick of it, but one you aren’t so inclined to give much thought about once it’s over. Proven to be a fine Sunday matinee time-passer, NIGHT HUNTER (renamed from NOMIS) may squander its potential for greatness with a silly novelty, but it’s still worth a peek when it hits select theaters Friday, September 6th.

Filmed in Winnipeg, NIGHT HUNTER picks up in wintry Minnesota. A grizzled police Lieutenant named Marshall (Henry Cavill) gets wind of a new case involving a serial woman abductor, rapist and murderer that’s been terrorizing the town. This heightens his hackles immediately, as Marshall has a close relationship with his daughter Faye (Emma Tremblay), who is at the impressionable age of being duped by online pedophilic predators. Marshall’s colleague, Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), is also on the case, which becomes creepier and more mysterious by the day. Police Commissioner Harper (Tucci) oversees the investigation, and while Tucci isn’t ultimately given enough to do as an actor, he’s forced to make a tough decision or two. No, it isn’t until Kingsley shows up as Cooper, a grievous judge who, after his family was killed, defrocked and dedicated himself to independently hunting repeat sex offenders; that the movie really takes off. Cooper’s brutal, lopping off scrotums to teach lessons. He even teams with Lara (Eliana Jones), one of the girls he saved, to lure foul men in like a spider to a fly. This subplot is among the most fascinating parts of the movie, not only for its unique setup, but of course in the way Kingsley makes it all seem so believable.

Speaking of convincing, plaudits are in line for Brendan Fletcher, who gives an uneven but predominantly alarming turn as Simon Stulls, the demented mouth-spuming killer in question. Simon is not only deaf, not only the offspring of a rape, but he’s also beset with a severe case of arrested mental development, and quite possibly schizophrenia. Cooper helps Marshall locate Simon using his elaborate tracking devices, resulting in a hyper-stylized visit to Simon’s grotesque basement dungeon where filthy young women are held captive. But here’s the thing. Once Simon is brought behind bars, his criminal M.O. continues. We start to wonder if, PRIMAL FEAR style, Simon is faking a mental impairment in order to avoid serious jail time, or if someone on the outside is in cahoots with Simon. It’s right here in the mysterious air of this cryptic query that the movie holds the most interest for the longest duration. As Marshall and Rachel come closer to uncovering the truth, their closest colleagues at the station begin to die, all while Simon remains jailed. For his part, Fletcher gives a commanding and doggedly dedicated performance as a deeply demented madman, moaning, wailing and drooling in a way you couldn’t ever quantify as “acting.” He does go overboard with the histrionics in a scene or two, but for the most part, Fletcher makes Simon genuinely disturbing, scarily unhinged, and pretty unpredictable.

That is, until the third act arrives. When it comes time to answer the key question in which the dramatic thrust of the story relies on, Raymond resorts to a wincingly clichéd novelty to explain it all away, one that threatens to undo all the good that proceeds it. It ultimately doesn’t, again thanks to the performances before and after the twist, but what starts off with such gripping promise sort of loses its way in the end with this one added absurdity that would certainly suffice as a midseason TV episode, but one that feels too played out for a first-rate cinematic thriller. This twist, as well as the subsequent finale, is a simple contrivance we’ve seen before in movies of this ilk. It doesn’t make the film any less enjoyable up until that point, but Raymond fails to nail the ending in a both a truly scintillating and satisfactory fashion, especially given the promissory strength of the first half of the film.

All told, NIGHT HUNTER is below the standard of Kingsley and Tucci, yet for a moderately budgeted feature debut, a slight cut above most of its kind. It’s aptly acted by all involved and assuredly shot by DP Michael Barrett (KISS KISS BANG BANG, TED), and even adds a unique wrinkle or two to the serial killer subgenre. But the movie ultimately damns itself by depending on a tired gimmick as a pivotal dramatic crutch before ending a bit bathetically.

About the Author

Jake Dee is one of JoBlo’s most valued script writers, having written extensive, deep dives as a writer on WTF Happened to this Movie and it’s spin-off, WTF Really Happened to This Movie. In addition to video scripts, Jake has written news articles, movie reviews, book reviews, script reviews, set visits, Top 10 Lists (The Horror Ten Spot), Feature Articles The Test of Time and The Black Sheep, and more.

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Movie Review – Night Hunter (2019)

October 13, 2019 by Robert Kojder

Night Hunter , 2019.

Written and Directed by David Raymond. Starring Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Alexandra Daddario, Stanley Tucci, Minka Kelly, Nathan Fillion, Carlyn Burchell, Eliana Jones, Brendan Fletcher, Mpho Koaho, Emma Tremblay, Sara Thompson, Daniela Lavender, and Beverly Ndukwu.

A weathered Lieutenant, his police force, and a local vigilante are all caught up in a dangerous scheme involving a recently arrested, troubled man who’s linked to years of female abductions and murders.

Night Hunter is a special dumpster fire that upon watching it, one has absolutely no clue what attracted any of its big celebrity names to the project. If I had to guess, I would say nothing more than the possibility of a worthwhile dialogue coming from a modern-day serial kidnapper/rapist of women narrative releasing during the current political landscape. There’s even a scene early on where Henry Cavill’s detective Marshall lectures his teenage daughter on the behavior of online sexual predators, a plot point that goes nowhere making one question why it was even brought up in the first place. If anything, writer and director David Raymond (making his debut feature) seems to be implying that criminals only abduct prey out in the open and that social media is a safe haven. No thought-provoking conversations are going to come as a result of Night Hunter .

Instead, Marshall gets caught up detaining a schizophrenic loon that kidnaps and tortures women. Brendan Fletcher is clearly taking inspiration from James McAvoy in Split (as for David Raymond, his film resembles an endless amount of movies I could name drop one by one, failing to muster up a single one of their positive qualities), most notably with the man-child persona and demented portrayal of innocence, and to give credit where it’s due he’s about the only thing in the movie that works. Fletcher is nothing if committed, spit visibly flying from his mouth as he shouts nearly every one of his lines.

Also present is Ben Kingsley as a former judge who now uses a young woman named Lara (Eliana Jones) as bait to close in on pedophiles and castrate them. Here’s the thing, they aren’t using the Internet to catch these predators (which obviously would have made for a great tie-in to the proposed dangers of social media), but rather advanced technology and hacking to locate these people and begin interacting with them. I’m no filmmaker, but I know someone probably could make a good movie involving characters that use social media to commit sexual crimes and those that use the platforms to deal out vigilante justice. Unfortunately, David Raymond has settled on psychological profiling, introducing characters and then abandoning them moments later (this ranges from victims to well-known actors such as Nathan Fillion, who I didn’t even realize was in this movie until the ending credits, a crime in itself), poorly constructed, logic-stretching storytelling that offers confusing character motivations rather than giving anyone depth, alongside some late-game twists that come across as someone pathetically desperate to one-up David Fincher’s Se7en .

Henry Cavill is already a blank slate as Marshall, yet oddly receives the most focus next to Brendan Fletcher’s Simon. Alexandra Daddario is tasked with getting inside the head of Simon to establish motives, locate the rest of the victims, and figure out who is helping him out. Somehow, the co-workers develop a romantic connection; it’s just another thing about Night Hunter that I could not tell you how or why; the script and direction are that bad. Inevitably, detective and outlaw must join forces to put away Simon for good, which should theoretically pave the way for a juxtaposition between the ways each side carries out the law. Night Hunter doesn’t even do that; they argue once and might as well never even appear on-screen together again.

Night Hunter is a misfire so bad that it taints the resume of all involved. Its only redeeming quality is a scenery-chewing performance that borders on cartoon rather than something that lends itself seriously to the story, but then again, nothing here aligns. It’s all just a bunch of ideas smashed together incoherently and without purpose. Again, go back to one of the films first scenes, a warning regarding online social media predators preying against those most vulnerable, that pans into nothing; David Raymond lost the plot before he properly started writing.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated  Patreon , or email me at [email protected]

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> Night Hunter (2018) Film Review

Night hunter.

Reviewed by: Amber Wilkinson

First-time feature David Raymond director has certainly gathered quite the cast for this crime thriller, including Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci and Nathan Fillion - although the latter's involvement here is so minimal you wonder why he bothered. You're going to want to break out your crime cliche bingo card early, lest you miss the full house.

Plot heavy and character light, Cavill's gruff cop Marshall is working in tandem with a psychological profiler (Alexandra Daddario, who put in good work in San Andreas and deserves better here) to try to get to the bottom of a case of serial sex assault and murder. Raymond doesn't want for ideas - it's just a shame that he has tried to cram them all into a single movie.

So it is that we get the main story - which sees a quick arrest of perp Simon (Brendan Fletcher), who has multiple personalities and seems almost too disturbed to have committed the gruesome murders he is accused of - running alongside a secondary story involving Kingsley's vigilante judge Cooper setting paedophile honey traps with young accomplice Lara (Eliana Jones), courtesy of a ton of McGyver-style tech. Soon the stories begin to dovetail as it turns out that Simon's apparent scheming stretches way beyond his initial crimes.

Keeping up with all this proves difficult for everyone involved, not least the editor who, at the mid-point of the film is cutting so fast between scenes that we have no time to even work out what room we are in let alone which cast member we are looking at. When you begin to wish one of the female characters had a different haircut so that you could distinguish them more quickly, you know that characterisation has failed.

Aside from one left-field revelation - which, if you enjoy general B-movie madness does make this worth catching - you can check things off by rote. The cops seem to come from the rottenest precinct in town, flouting procedure at every turn. Not unusual in the thriller world, perhaps, but quite laughable here. Take, for example, the moment near the start when Simon is arrested. Despite turning up mob handed with a full SWAT team, good old Marshall still goes into the serial killer's lair alone - and with a flashlight, of course. This is done, you suspect, not to further the story but because it looks cool.

Smaller cliches also pepper the action - Cooper floating Christ-like in a swimming pool, people unable to give emotional hugs without falling to their knees, the list goes on. Cavill, meanwhile, moves through the movie like a tectonic plate, in stark contrast to Fletcher, who is busy chewing scenery. On one level, the very ridiculousness of proceedings keeps it watchable - and if someone had only told Raymond that less would be more, there's a feeling that a better film lies inside this one - but Night Hunter is probably best watched with a group of mates, a few beers and that bingo card for the fullest enjoyment.

Director: David Raymond

Writer: David Raymond

Starring: Henry Cavill, Brendan Fletcher, Alexandra Daddario, Minka Kelly, Stanley Tucci, Ben Kingsley, Nathan Fillion, Eliana Jones, Sara Thompson, Emma Tremblay, Mpho Koaho, Daniela Lavender, Carlyn Burchell, Kristen Harris, Jason Tremblay

Runtime: 98 minutes

Country: Canada, US

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Movie Review: Night Hunter

People tend to expect a lot out of a star-studded cast like this, and the fact is that taking Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, Alexandra Daddario, Nathan Fillion, and several other well-known individuals and placing them in a movie that feels like an action movie that should, by all means, rock the house. But while Night Hunter is kind of a generic title, the movie is a bit generic as well, though it does lean into the ‘interesting’ column just enough that it’s no surprise why folks would end up watching it. These days it does feel as though some movies tend to bank on star power versus the ability to tell a good story. To be fair, this isn’t a bad story since it doesn’t fall so heavily into used-up tropes that would have been capable of sinking the movie entirely, but trying to find it with a simple search does feel like it would be a little daunting for those that are bound to want something that’s up and coming. The movie doesn’t really stand out among action movies, despite the cast.

It could be that the story is more or less a kidnapping tale that does use ideas that have been seen before, but in a dark and foreboding sort of way that is can be beneficial with some movies, but heavy-handed with others. To make a long explanation short, this movie feels like something that could have been tweaked a bit to make it even more impressive. The impressive cast is great enough to tell a story that could have hit a lot of people in the feels and get them pumped to see the conclusion, but it does feel as though the antagonist was a bit, well, ineffective. To put it plainly, the bad guy wasn’t the type that felt up to the task of stumping the protagonists, no matter that this was how the story went. 

If anything it felt as though the story might have been crafted to stymie the attempts of the protagonists to give the antagonist a chance to gain a leg up on the good guys, since otherwise, it feels as though the story might have ended a little too quickly. Plus, the flip-flopping of the antagonist before it’s revealed that there are two of them, twins, is a nice touch, but once again it feels as though the villains aren’t really of the same caliber as the heroes, meaning that something had to be manipulated for the villains to have even a hint of a chance when it came to outmaneuvering their opposition. Also, the role that Ben Kingsley played, the self-made vigilante that was out to take down as many bad guys as possible while using a young woman as bait, might come off as smart and even useful to some folks, but this too feels a little forced, as though a writer might have believed that this would be something that people might respond to in a positive or at least understanding manner when the truth is that it comes off as kind of creepy and a little ineffective. 

Maybe it comes from the thought that this movie could have been something better and even bigger, but the fact is that it is an interesting movie to watch, but it’s not quite the same as some of the blockbusters that several of the actors have starred in over the years. If anything, Night Hunter is a movie that might have been great had it been given over to another writer that could have found the gaps in the script and allowed to change a few things here and there. As it stands the movie isn’t that bad really and does offer up enough of a thrill for those that are ready to enjoy the combined acting abilities of the cast, but the villain , despite being unhinged and a little diabolical, just doesn’t fit the bill when pitted against some of the biggest actors in the industry. The idea is sound since the fact remains that kidnapping stories and tales of those that suffer from mental disabilities are those that people still tend to watch quite often, but again, the writing could have used a bit more of a punch to it. 

It’s kind of tough for action movies of any type to stand out since the fact is that there are so many of them that the movie almost needs to have a stellar hook or be part of a franchise these days to stand out in that much-needed way. But for those that love searching the lists for a movie they haven’t seen before, Night Hunter is one of those that might catch their eye and interest them just enough to get into it. When all is said and done it’s an interesting story that could have used some additional work, but it’s worth watching. 

A lover of great stories and epic tales, Tom is a fan of old and new-school ideas. As a novelist and a screenwriter, he enjoys promoting one story or another. With 18k+ articles and 40 novels written, Tom knows a little something about storytelling.

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It's a thin line between LOVE and HATE.

Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter” (1955) is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many “great movies” are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career. Many great movies use actors who come draped in respectability and prestige, but Robert Mitchum has always been a raffish outsider. And many great movies are realistic, but “Night of the Hunter” is an expressionistic oddity, telling its chilling story through visual fantasy. People don’t know how to categorize it, so they leave it off their lists.

Yet what a compelling, frightening and beautiful film it is! And how well it has survived its period. Many films from the mid-1950s, even the good ones, seem somewhat dated now, but by setting his story in an invented movie world outside conventional realism, Laughton gave it a timelessness. Yes, the movie takes place in a small town on the banks of a river. But the town looks as artificial as a Christmas card scene, the family’s house with its strange angles inside and out looks too small to live in, and the river becomes a set so obviously artificial it could have been built for a completely stylized studio film like “Kwaidan” (1964).

Everybody knows the Mitchum character, the sinister “Reverend” Harry Powell. Even those who haven’t seen the movie have heard about the knuckles of his two hands, and how one has the letters H-A-T-E tattooed on them, and the other the letters L-O-V-E. Bruce Springsteen drew on those images in his song “Cautious Man”:

“On his right hand Billy’d tattooed the word “love” and on his left hand was the word “fear” And in which hand he held his fate was never clear”

Many movie lovers know by heart the Reverend’s famous explanation to the wide-eyed boy (“Ah, little lad, you’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand?”) And the scene where the Reverend stands at the top of the stairs and calls down to the boy and his sister has become the model for hundred other horror scenes.

But does this familiarity give “The Night of the Hunter” the recognition it deserves? I don’t think so because those famous trademarks distract from its real accomplishment. It is one of the most frightening of movies, with one of the most unforgettable of villains, and on both of those scores it holds up as well after four decades as I expect “ The Silence of the Lambs ” to do many years from now.

The story, somewhat rearranged: In a prison cell, Harry Powell discovers the secret of a condemned man ( Peter Graves ), who has hidden $10,000somewhere around his house. After being released from prison, Powell seeks out the man’s widow, Willa Harper ( Shelley Winters ), and two children, John ( Billy Chapin ) and the owl-faced Pearl ( Sally Jane Bruce ). They know where the money is, but don’t trust the “preacher.” But their mother buys his con game and marries him, leading to a tortured wedding night inside a high-gabled bedroom that looks a cross between a chapel and a crypt.

Soon Willa Harper is dead, seen in an incredible shot at the wheel of a car at the bottom of the river, her hair drifting with the seaweed. And soon the children are fleeing down the dream-river in a small boat, while the Preacher follows them implacably on the shore; this beautifully stylized sequence uses the logic of nightmares, in which no matter how fast one runs, the slow step of the pursuer keeps the pace. The children are finally taken in by a Bible-fearing old lady ( Lillian Gish ), who would seem to be helpless to defend them against the single-minded murderer, but is as unyielding as her faith.

The shot of Winters at the bottom of the river is one of several remarkable images in the movie, which was photographed in black and white by Stanley Cortez , who shot Welles’ “The Magnificent Ambersons,” and once observed he was “always chosen to shoot weird things.” He shot few weirder than here, where one frightening composition shows a street lamp casting Mitchum’s terrifying shadow on the walls of the children’s bedroom. The basement sequence combines terror and humor, as when the Preacher tries to chase the children up the stairs, only to trip, fall, recover, lunge and catch his fingers in the door. And the masterful nighttime river sequence uses giant foregrounds of natural details, like frogs and spider webs, to underline a kind of biblical progression as the children drift to eventual safety.

The screenplay, based on a novel by Davis Grubb , is credited to James Agee , one of the icons of American film writing and criticism, then in the final throes of alcoholism. Laughton’s widow, Elsa Lanchester , is adamant in her autobiography: “Charles finally had very little respect for Agee. And he hated the script, but he was inspired by his hatred.” She quotes the film’s producer, Paul Gregory : “. . . the script that was produced on the screen is no more James Agee’s . . . than I’m Marlene Dietrich .”

Who wrote the final draft? Perhaps Laughton had a hand. Lanchester and Laughton both remembered that Mitchum was invaluable as a help in working with the two children, whom Laughton could not stand. But the final film is all Laughton’s, especially the dreamy, Bible-evoking final sequence, with Lillian Gish presiding over events like an avenging elderly angel.

Robert Mitchum is one of the great icons of the second half-century of cinema. Despite his sometimes scandalous off-screen reputation, despite his genial willingness to sign on to half-baked projects, he made a group of films that led David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, to ask, “How can I offer this hunk as one of the best actors in the movies?” And answer: “Since the war, no American actor has made more first-class films, in so many different moods.” “The Night of the Hunter,” he observes, represents “the only time in his career that Mitchum acted outside himself,” by which he means there is little of the Mitchum persona in the Preacher.

Mitchum is uncannily right for the role, with his long face, his gravel voice, and the silky tones of a snake-oil salesman. And Shelly Winters, all jitters and repressed sexual hysteria, is somehow convincing as she falls so prematurely into, and out of, his arms. The supporting actors are like a chattering gallery of Norman Rockwell archetypes, their lives centered on bake sales, soda fountains and gossip. The children, especially the little girl, look more odd than lovable, which helps the film move away from realism and into stylized nightmare. And Lillian Gish and Stanley Cortez quite deliberately, I think, composed that great shot of her which looks like nothing so much as Whistler’s mother holding a shotgun.

Charles Laughton showed here that he had an original eye, and a taste for material that stretched the conventions of the movies. It is risky to combine horror and humor, and foolhardy to approach them through expressionism. For his first film, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, the public rejected it, and the studio had a much more expensive Mitchum picture (“Not as a Stranger”) it wanted to promote instead. But nobody who has seen “The Night of the Hunter” has forgotten it, or Mitchum’s voice coiling down those basement stairs: “Chillll . . . dren?”

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Robert Mitchum as Rev. Harry Powell
• James Gleason as Birdie
• Shelley Winters as Willa Harper
• Don Beddoe as Walt
• Lillian Gish as Rachel
• Evelyn Varden as Icey
• Billy Chapin as John
• Peter Graves as Ben Harper
• Sally Jane Bruce as Pearl

Screenplay by

• Charles Laughton

Based on the novel by

• Davis Grubb

Produced by

• Paul Gregory

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Review: night hunter ’s actors are helpless against its nonsensical clichés.

The film is so clichéd and scattershot as to make Copycat look like Peeping Tom by comparison.

David Raymond’s Night Hunter harks back to ’90s American cinema, when evil masterminds were having a moment in the wake of Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs and David Fincher’s Se7en . At this time, serial killers on film weren’t merely clever, sick white men; they were rock stars as well as masters of all forms of social bureaucracy, possessing brilliant psychological insight into their prey. None of these films were made with Demme and Fincher’s respective humanity and panache, but a handful featured memorable acting. Edward Norton gave an electric performance as a murder suspect in Gregory Hoblit’s Primal Fear , and Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter informed Jon Amiel’s Copycat with a soulfulness that almost felt obscene considering the flimsiness of the material. The DNA of these films runs explicitly through Night Hunter , a film so clichéd and scattershot as to make Copycat look like Peeping Tom by comparison.

Marshall (Henry Cavill) is a hunky cop who split from his wife because, in the tradition of many film detectives before him, he simply cares too damn much about catching psychos. His almost-teenage daughter, Faye (Emma Tremblay), attempts to puncture her father’s aloofness, speaking to him like an adult caseworker, encouraging him to open up about himself. In one surprisingly poignant scene, we’re allowed to almost casually notice that Faye has set up her father’s spare bachelor pad from hell while he’s off hunting the killer du jour. Faye is no more believable than any of the other stereotypes inhabiting Night Hunter , but Tremblay is the one actor here who informs her role with human conviction. (Also, you may respect Raymond’s restraint for not setting Faye up as a target of one of Marshall’s nemeses.)

Cavill isn’t so much bad in his role as he isn’t present, which is understandable given that Marshall has been written with even less personality than usual for the hero of a cops-and-pervs narrative. The actor seems to want to underplay the role, but he doesn’t communicate a sense of something simmering beneath Marshall’s stoic man’s-man exterior—a quality that Cavill achieved in his underrated performances as Superman. And so what’s left is a man walking through a role, trying to deliver third-rate dialogue with an illusion of urgency. As an ex-judge turned vigilante hunter of sexual predators (no joke), Ben Kinglsey is on the same erudite, I-know-I’m-classing-up-this-joint autopilot that characterizes many of his performances in VOD schlock, as is Stanley Tucci as Marshall’s superior. Alexandra Daddario tries to bring her criminal profiler to life, but the character is compendium of plot devices, a fountain of exposition who morphs into a damsel in distress and finally a love interest.

One actor does aim for the back rows in Night Hunter , and his performance is a disaster. As Simon, Brendan Fletcher is required to operate in two alternating modes: as a mewling, slobbering, almost incomprehensible adult baby, and as a spittle-firing psychopath, a killer of women with the resources of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight . Simon is also clearly derived from Norton’s role in Primal Fear , and from a handful of James McAvoy’s roles in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split , but Fletcher doesn’t have those actors’ self-preserving instincts. Norton and McAvoy knew they were playing shtick, and their knowledge parallels the showboating of the characters, allowing the audience to feel in on the joke. By contrast, Fletcher appears to take his character dead seriously, obsessively doubling down on Simon’s grotesquerie and making a spectacle of himself. And Raymond’s screenplay, a nonsensical hodgepodge of gimmicks—there’s even a cracking frozen pond and a dark, dark patch of woods—increasingly leaves Fletcher out to dry by inciting him to go further and further over the top. He may be playing the villain, but Fletcher feels like Night Hunter ’s sacrificial lamb.

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Night Hunter Reviews

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 1/10 | Dec 2, 2002

Sure, calling a film "better than Bloodfist 8" is damning with faint praise, but fans of genre-melding B-grade kickboxing flicks may find a little something to enjoy.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Nov 29, 2002

Screen Rant

Nightbitch review: amy adams goes absolutely feral in comedy about motherhood & identity [tiff].

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Amy Adams' New Movie Is Her Boldest Attempt To Snap An Unbelievable Oscars Streak

“that’s what went wrong”: dungeons & dragons movie’s box office disappointment bluntly explained by hugh grant, netflix's action thriller with 94% rt score becomes global hit just days after release.

Nightbitch , based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder, has had a ton of hype leading up to its premiere. How will the film adapt the cerebral novel, which is about a mother who believes she is turning into a dog? Could this be the movie that finally gets Amy Adams her long-deserved Oscar ? When the Nightbitch trailer was released shortly before the film's premiere, was backlash against the tone of the preview, which many thought would be wildly different.

That backlash is wholly unwarranted, though, and to look at Nightbitch (or any movie really) solely through the lens of its awards potential, is not really productive. Ultimately, Nightbitch is neither the awards vehicle people were hoping for (though it could still shake out that way) nor is it the disaster many thought it would be from the trailer. Instead, director Marielle Heller's adaptation is very funny, a little gross, and another unforgettable role for Adams, eschewing the more literary-minded tone of the novel for something a little more populist.

Nightbitch Is A Tricky Film To Nail Down

There's a lot going on but the film finds the right balance.

Adams stars as the title character, only referred to as Mother in the credits. She's drowning in motherhood, taking care of her young child while her husband (Scoot McNairy) jets off every other week for work. Mother's exhaustion is evident - Adams wears the weight of motherhood on her shoulders, exhibiting high-wire energy in front of her son while collapsing into herself whenever his attention is elsewhere.

Adams struggles to get along with other moms, resentful of their embracing of motherhood while she has given up her career in the art world. It's not that she doesn't love being a mother, it's just that it's not the only thing she wants to be. Much of the film's tension is derived from the idea that Mother is struggling to be more than one thing.

There are a few gross out moments that call back to the book's gore, but it never tips too far into body horror, which feels a bit like a missed opportunity. Instead, Nightbitch leans into the sentimental...

I'd be remiss to mention the fact that a lot of the critics reviewing Nightbitch out of the Toronto International Film Festival have been men and, as someone who never has and will never experience motherhood, I can't judge the movie through that lens alone. Heller, Adams, and Yoder's impassioned talk at the Q&A after the film, though, expanded on the complexities of the film, and despite what may be surface level to some, Nightbitch mostly feels like a wholly unique and wild take on its subject.

The film never treats Mother like she's crazy, though plenty of crazy things happen. There are a few gross out moments that call back to the book's gore, but it never tips too far into body horror, which feels a bit like a missed opportunity. Instead, Nightbitch leans into the sentimental, even when Adams' character is at her most wild.

Amy Adams Delivers Another Amazing Performance

Nightbitch wouldn't work without its acclaimed star.

The wildness Adams displays is seen in everything from cutting arguments with her husband to blunt and embarrassing moments in front of friends and acquaintances. Eventually, it leads to something much more primal, and it's these moments where Adams shines the most, finding the perfect balance between joyful liberation and the underlying fear that motherhood has changed her forever.

The material doesn't always serve Adams in the way that it should. Early on, Nightbitch tips its thematic and doesn't dig much deeper, making the film feel cyclical in its examination of motherhood, marriage, and liberation. In the second half, the film turns into more of a domestic drama, almost as if it doesn't know what to do with some of the source material's weirder elements.

Amy Adams is gearing up for her next big movie release, a horror comedy that could finally break her long-running streak without an Oscar.

That's okay, though. That Heller was able to adapt Yoder's unclassifiable novel into something like this is a feat in and of itself. Where it struggles, other elements make up for it. Most of the weight is carried by Adams, and it's hard to overstate how great she is here, nailing comedic timing and dramatic beats with precision. It's one of Adams' best performances in a career full of them, messy and feral and unwiedly, just like Nightbitch itself.

Nightbitch had its premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is 98 minutes long and rated R for language and some sexuality. It will be released in US theaters on December 6.

• Amy Adams delivers a stunning performance in Nightbitch.
• The movie nails a tricky tone, balancing comedy, horror, and magical realism.
• Several disparate elements come together for a touching ending.
• The film feels cyclical in its thematic concerns.