October 25th, 2010 - Hunger

Well, this was a pisser of a day. My internet is out for most of it, and then Rob Ford gets elected mayor. At least the movie was pretty god, right? Perhaps not.

It's not a bad movie. It's actually a pretty sweet premise. 5 strangers are kidnapped and locked in a cave at the bottom of a well. They have plenty of water, but no food. They do, however, have a scalpel and it doesn't look like the door will open for another month or so. Bad things happen. It's a cool premise, ripe for all sort of moral grey areas and gore. The kidnapper's motivation is interesting as well. It seem plausible, and was unsettling in it's own right.

Problem is that once they set everything up, they do nothing with it. The characters are all one-note and predictable. There's the jerk, the hero, the survivor girl, the innocent and the wild card. Except for one character dying slightly earlier than I expected to, there were no real surprises. It also doesn't help that not one of the characters are likable or relatable in any way. Now, part of this is due to the reason they were all brought together. It's a neat idea which I won't ruin here, but it throws our sympathies from the moment we find out. In many ways, it puts us in the killer's shoes, which should be an interesting place to be, or at least an uncomfortable one. The filmmakers find that perfect place, though, between keeping him vague and defining his personality that we can't project ourselves on to him, or for him to be a well rounded character. It's a shame.

It also put me off right from the start with an opening which is almost entirely in darkness. Again, I feel that they were trying to put us in the characters situation, but ended up just pissing me off. It just came across as being badly underlit. It's a shame, because the actors are all pretty solid. Like I said, they don't have a lot to work with, but they all try their best. And it has Linden Ashby, who's fucking badass, as anyone who saw Mortal Kombat will attest. It's a shame, really. This should have been awesome. The idea was there, the cast was there, they money was there. The script and the director dropped the ball.

Hunger is worth a look. It's part of the Fangoria Frightfest lineup that came out last month. This is the first I've seen, and I'm curious enough to see more. Throw it on in the middle of a movie marathon, and you won't remember it in the morning, but it'll make for some fun drunken moral debating the night of.