[SXSW 2024] HUNTING DAZE -- Shallow Thriller Carried by Strong Atmosphere

Review by Sean Boelman

Often, directorial debuts are more effective as calling cards for what’s to come in a filmmaker’s oeuvre than as satisfying products in and of themselves. Annick Blanc’s Hunting Daze works as an exercise in genre, but if you come into the film expecting to be rewarded with anything more than fleeting entertainment, you’ll be disappointed by its lack of substance.

The film follows an exotic dancer who, after getting stranded in the remote wilderness, convinces five strangers to take her in on a bachelor’s party trip, only to find a strange sense of belonging amongst the men. What we have is a pretty straightforward thriller with tinges of dark comedy, and while it’s not the pinnacle of either genre, there’s enough good here to make it worth watching. 

Although the story seems like it would lend itself to explosive pacing, it’s quite slow-burning. Yet despite this, the film breezes by at a mere hour and nineteen minutes in length. The protagonist's interactions with her unlikely companions are often funny and occasionally unsettling, but they are always enough to keep viewers interested.

However, although Hunting Daze is consistently entertaining, it is also pretty shallow. The film’s assessments that men are animals and that you can’t tame a wild beast are simplistic, albeit not entirely false. Deeper themes run through this, though — especially regarding the film’s sole Black character — but Blanc’s script doesn’t have enough breathing room to explore them.

The characters are all incredibly archetypal. Each member of the “stag squad” falls into their prescribed niche to the tee: the sensitive one, the leader who seems reasonable at first but has a mean (in this case, misogynistic streak), and so on. Worse yet, the protagonist is about as much of a “hooker with a heart of gold” trope as you can get.

Still, the cast manages to make the most of their roles and turn their stock characters into something surprisingly memorable. The unparalleled MVP is Bruno Marcil, whose performance is unbelievably menacing and fun to watch. However, Nahéma Ricci has a gripping screen presence and holds her own against the much flashier Marcil.

The film is also buoyed by solid crafts across the board. Compared to most festival midnight pictures, Hunting Daze is pretty tame. However, where Blanc excels is creating tension and atmosphere. She uses the woodsy setting to her advantage, immersing viewers in this lawless world of toxic masculinity.

Hunting Daze had the potential to be the next great feminist thriller, and while it doesn’t come close to meeting those ambitions, it’s at least an entertaining way to spend a little more than an hour. It will be interesting to see what filmmaker Annick Blanc can do if she can spend more time fleshing out her characters and themes in her next script.

Hunting Daze is screening at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, which runs March 8-16 in Austin, TX.

​Rating: 3/5