With Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen at the helm of writing, directing, cinematography, and everything in between, this is a true labor of effort and love. And blood. Lots of blood.

HUNT HER KILL HER starts as Karen (Natalie Terrazzino) takes an overnight job at a factory as a janitor, despite having a young sick child at home and just recently divorced. At first, it doesn’t go so well as her ex’s friends, who also work there, realize she’s there and harass her. However, as people leave for the night, and she begins her workday, things begin to calm down…

Unfortunately, not for too long. After getting a mysterious package, she soon finds herself on the run from four masked intruders set out for blood. With only herself to rely on, she needs to rely on luck, innovation, and force to be able to survive, but can she do it before she is hunted?

So, let’s talk about the good points of this film: Natalie Terrazzino, the music, the blood, and the cinematography. For a low-budget horror, it does well to draw out the suspense and atmosphere. Natalie Terrazzino as Karen plays it real and tough despite her limited experience in film. The effects department and writing made careful attention to each new wound inflicted and built off of it, much like in You’re Next.

The music composed by David Risdahl hits cool synth tones that highlighted each scene, enforcing it as pivotal to the moment, or softly in the background, supporting Karen’s survival. Which, again, kudos to Risdahl because this is only the second film score he has worked on so far. It is reminiscent of Intruder and is very enjoyable.

Also, the cinematography and editing by Thiessen are both crisp and clean, sometimes going for a more stylistic choice, which I desperately wanted more of. This type of film (like the others I’ve mentioned before) is the time and place to really show off your chops and to try for something less formulaic. There were many “safe” shots in HUNT HER KILL HER, but you can also see where he was pushing a bit for more artistic shots. If I had any advice to give, it would be to please stay on that track. Make it clean, concise, and believable, but also step out of the box a little. Have fun with it. Scenes like those which take risks can be some of the most iconic moments in horror, hands-down.

Honestly, the heaviest criticism I have in HUNT HER KILL HER is the writing. The first and second acts were good and I appreciated that HUNT HER KILL HER took the time to establish Karen as a character. She is going to be our focal point. I need to know her to care about her. To compare, I need to bring up the excellent 2019 Indian psychological horror, Game Over, directed by Ashwin Saravanan. By the time the action happened, the lead character, Swapna, was a character I knew. I knew her inside and out, and that’s what caused my anxiety for her. So, when the masked men showed up in Game Over, I was already invested in her.

Now, I know there wasn’t as much time to establish Karen, especially for it being shot in one location; however, during the hide-and-seek, cat-and-mouse shenanigans, the violence and victories seemed incidental, often even comical. I laughed at one point because of the setup and pay-off. But, with these types of home invasions, we need to feel a connection between the violence/threat and the main character.

Hush is another good example of the build-up taken before each attack. If it’s not the right flow of character, action, threat, and pay-off, it gets overused and the tension decreases. And, by the third act, I had felt all the tension already in the second act to where I was just watching, but not feeling the initial shock and anxiety.

Another example is Die Hard. One location (kinda), multiple baddies, and one man to defeat them. I’ve watched it countless times and I won’t ever get tired or bored of it. It’s clean and precise as the stakes grow and grow. As we learn more about John and how he works. And same for Erin in You’re Next.

I so wanted that for HUNT HER KILL HER. But by the time we reached the Big Bad (which I didn’t think he was the Big Bad until, like, the others were dead), the stakes seemed about the same.

And I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy HUNT HER KILL HER. In fact, the reason why I say anything at all is because I enjoyed it. It’s like eating a delicious cake. With a different frosting, though, boy, it’d really win first prize. There’s a lot to enjoy in it and if you like films about fighting off an intruder (which is usually not my tea, but the trailer enticed me, so what can I say), you will probably really enjoy HUNT HER KILL HER.

So, if you’re into cat-and-mouse thrillers with a female lead and a great synth score, you might just want to hunt this one down.

HUNT HER KILL HER is being released in 150 U.S. theaters by Welcome Villian Films on March 3, 2023.

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J.M. Brannyk

When not solving mysteries throughout Detroit with Jellybeans the Cat, J.M. Brannyk enjoys mostly supernatural and slasher films from the '70s-'90s. Aside from writing, Brannyk dips into podcasts and is the composer of many podcast theme songs. Also check out some other stuff on Hauntedmtl and Gayly Dreadful.

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