Here is a survey of that movement, the movies that pre-dated and a few that came after it. The Torrance family discusses the cannibalism of the Donner Party as they drive through the Rocky Mountains to the Overlook hotel in The Shining (1980). This lead to what is called the “Golden Age” of cannibal films, if you can call it that, or the “Italian cannibal boom” and many of these movies went on to become cult classics. It’s all the not-that-scared slow-walking-escape that kicks off and finishes off the middle acts that blow this “game” before it really gets started.Yet, as many horror fans know, there was a disturbing trend in the mid to late 1970s and early 1980s spawned by Italian filmmakers like Ruggero Deodato who made several films in the cannibal genre. That doesn’t quite go for the picture, which has a fine moment here and there, and begins and ends well enough. “”This country used to be ruled by lions. Some of this is rectified for brief moments, but the overall feel is of a chase that has low stakes until we see our first victim killed.īond gives fair value as the most entitled of the entitled, a woman with lots of miles and plenty of resentment for her inferiors. The hounds, tails a-wagging and whatnot, come off as big ol’boo-boos and not killers baying for blood. Damned if I couldn’t overcome an old man, an OAP-aged woman, a daft 50ish father or his skinny inbred punk son. They have four servants working with them, so they may have access to guns, but only carry “ceremonial” knives with them. Here, it’s introduced and joked about but somewhat lost in the search for inventive ways to kill the hunted and clever twists that let the prey become the predators.Īs I mentioned at the outset, there’s a serious lack of menace among the horseback riders. Interestingly, the class consciousness has always been a subtext of the “Game” story, although many films avoided that because the filmmakers/producers were afraid of pointing out how the robber baron rich would just as soon kill us as let The People exercise power.ĭecades of “Well, there’s no sense letting them label us communists” thinking prevailed in Hollywood if not everywhere. On hearing the sound of a distant horn, the thunder of hooves and baying of hounds - “I thought they banned fox hunting.” “Why did they let us go? Why did they wish us luck?” The four thieves are left on their own, with a lot of questions they need the answers to. ![]() These impudent breaking-and-entering commoners have upset that order. ![]() “This country,” she intones, “used to have a natural order…the rulers, and the ruled.” Leader Leon ( Nobuse Jnr), his getaway driver little brother Charlie - “That’s CHAZZ!” ( Malachi Pullar-Latchman), lockpicker Vix ( Hannah Traylen) and East European muscle Tod ( Ross Coles) figure they’ll do - say it with me - “One Last Job” for their antique-shop owning fence.īut it goes “pear shaped” as they say in Jolly Olde, and they find themselves hogtied, driven into the middle of nowhere, and lectured by the Redwick matriarch (screen veteran Samantha Bond, who played Moneypenny when Pierce Brosnan was 007). This time, it’s a gang of young London robbers who find themselves trapped, taunted and released by the family that owns the gigantic and ancient rural brick pile, The Redwick Estate. But this Tommy Boulding tale is depressingly straightforward and generally lacks the urgency of people being chased to death and the menace of upper class twits on horseback dressed for the hunt and dressed to kill. Like every adaptation, it has its unique twists and touches. It’s another story about the inbred and entitled rich hunting their fellow humans for sport, another variation of Richard Connell’s classic short story from 1924. “Hunted” was titled “Hounded” (better title) when it was released in the UK. ![]() Man/human beings are “The Most Dangerous Game.” As long as there are movies to be made, there’ll be fresh versions of the hoariest thriller plot of all, the one based on a short story with a pun in the title.
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