My quick rating – 4.7/10. It Hunts starts with what seems like a perfectly ordinary street scene, accompanied by some surprisingly soothing music. Someone walks along with a bottle, takes a swig, gets into their car, and is promptly stabbed repeatedly by someone hiding in the backseat. A lovely way to start the evening.
Thankfully, it was only a nightmare. Casey (Izzy Martinez) has been having recurring dreams about murders, though the details change each time. His already mundane life isn’t exactly helping, either. He’s a lazy nightcrawler with a diet almost as bad as his dead-end job, while his girlfriend Alex (Katlin Svadbik) is getting understandably tired of carrying everything while Casey mostly settles into his routine.
As the dreams and visions become more intense, Casey starts trying to figure out what’s actually happening. Gabriel Black handles all of the camera work, and there are some nice choices throughout. A good variety of angles makes even the mundane scenes visually interesting, while the increasingly unsettling imagery helps blur the line between what Casey is experiencing and what might actually be happening.
The performances are a little more inconsistent. Both leads have scenes where they work really well, followed by moments that the actors may have been looking for cue cards. Still, there’s an interesting story underneath the supernatural elements.
One way to tell a story about mental illness is to disguise it as a supernatural horror movie, and that’s what It Hunts feels like it’s doing. Beneath the nightmares is a story about grief following a drunken fatal accident, along with guilt, depression, and learning to accept consequences. There are plenty of metaphors throughout, with the supernatural elements representing Casey’s internal struggles.
And if you have to kill yourself and somehow come back from it, apparently the next logical step is to consult the Internet. LOL.
I was on board with what the movie was building until the ending. The setup takes its time and works on you psychologically, giving the story details to think about. Then the final act feels rushed. One late-arriving character makes a dramatic shift from wanting to tear Casey apart to deciding to do the right thing incredibly quickly, and it doesn’t quite land for me.
I’m also a fan of endings that leave you wondering, and I think the idea works here. Unfortunately, I found the answer, or at least my guess at it, pretty obvious. Either way, any ending that makes you think ultimately keeps you talking about it.
Still, It Hunts is a solid indie horror movie using supernatural elements to explore mental illness rather than relying on jump scares. That isn’t a new approach, but there is enough of a spin on it to make it worthwhile. I’ve apparently been finding quite a few of these deeper horror movies lately, like Cruel Hands, that are more interested in getting inside your head than making you jump out of your chair. I’m not complaining. I like seeing directors try creative things.
