‘Hunting Daze’ Movie Review [Fantasia 2024]: A Bachelor Party Takes An Overly Abstract Path

Photo from Fantasia Film Festival

Annick Blanc’s Hunting Daze sets itself apart from other bachelor-party-goes-wrong movies. While efforts like The Hangover celebrate toxic masculinity, ego, and self-image in their own way, Blanc exposes a darker side in her directorial feature debut. This nature-bound thriller has a compelling hook, but the plot loses itself somewhere along its dreamy path.

Nina (Nahéma Ricci) is a strong-willed sex worker who finds herself stranded in a remote forest. She joins an unruly group of men in the middle of their bachelor party weekend until she can return home. A mysterious stranger arrives, upending their weekend and bonding the group in sinister ways.

Hunting Daze begins with Nina being stuck on the road with a seedy travel companion and an empty fuel tank. She refuses to continue her trip with him, opting to tag along with a man she only recently met, returning to his cabin. However, his friends aren’t so inviting. They subject her to a blind vote to determine whether they will take her in, hazing rituals, and behavioral rules to their friend group that acts more like a wolf pack with howling and all. She’s forced to become “one of the guys” or she’ll have to take her chances alone in the woods.

Blanc’s theme of survival takes on many forms. Nina is like a fish out of water, trying to fit in to maintain the roof over her head. Together, they party, hunt, game, and prank one another. However, there’s always a sense of uneasiness looming beneath the surface. Blanc captures palpable tension through the first portion of the film, but it slowly fades away after the introduction of another guest. Nina’s odd dreams warn her of potential dangers, causing her to question the group’s motives and moral compass. 

Hunting Daze has something to say about human nature, self-importance, and the hunger for fulfillment. However, the abstract haziness dampens the compelling concept at its core. As the cloud of mystery dissipates, it’s disappointing to see that there isn’t really anything there. All of those initiations feel like set up for something that never comes. We don’t learn much about Nina beyond her career and the respect she expects from the men around her. There’s even less information revealed about the men beyond their archetypes, which she’s no stranger to dealing with. These lacking characterizations make it difficult to grow invested.

Vincent Gonneville’s cinematography captures the setting’s dreamy greenery. The forest feels appropriately dangerous, mysterious, and endless. It’s just a shame that Blanc’s screenplay writes itself into a corner where it doesn’t have anywhere to go. 

Hunting Daze is a thriller built upon the foundation of a unique, cultlike bachelor party concept that gets caught in a murky rut that it can’t seem to pull itself out of. There are too many dream sequences, which don’t add up to much. Ricci turns in a well-rounded leading performance, but the characterization is barely there. The biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn’t feel like it has a natural flow or destination, even though it has plenty of individual components that make a great film.

Rating: 2.5/5

Hunting Daze played at Fantasia 2024 on August 1st, 2024.