Night of the Hunted/Review

On a dark and rainy night on some lonely road, Robert (Alain Duclos) almost runs over a manic beauty who's dressed in a nightgown. Come to find out, this girl is suffering from some serious short-term memory. But the only thing she can remember is her name, Elysabeth (Brigitte Lahaie) Robert then quickly decides to look after Elysabeth and makes sure that she will remember who he is by indulging in some love-making. The next morning, while Robert leaves for work, Elysabeth is tracked down by Dr. Francis (Bernard Papineau) who orders Elysabeth to "come back home". But Elysabeth refuses. Saying that she loves Robert and will stay with him. But Francis has the last word on the matter by saying that she will forget where she is and who she loves. And in just of matter of moments, he's right! Rather than being housed in some remote area, Elysabeth is taken to a skyscraper(!) which holds many other people who have her condition. All are amnesia-prone subjects, with some bordering on Schizophrenia. It's later revealed that some radioactive spill is responsible for causing these innocent people to have these conditions and that the doctor (And his crew) are dealing with the "patients" personally. One of the patients is Véronique (Dominique Journet) who re-unites with Elysabeth after the two of them had attempted the previous escape which resulted in Elysabeth being found by Robert. And once again, the duo have plans to break away from the doctor. And this time, Elysabeth lucks out by holding on to a notepad with Robert's name and phone number. Will Robert be able to save the day this time around?

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I went into this one knowing nothing about it. But I'm glad to say that it was certainly worth a look. This is definetly a big step-up from some other Z-Grade junk that I've seen from director Jean Rollin. Here, he manages to make good use out of something reminiscent of an episode of "Outer Limits" or "Twilight Zone". Night of the Hunted isn't straight-up horror, but there is a suspense angle involving the building's guards who are ordered to shoot and kill the patients on sight. Plus some horrific imagery near the end of the movie where brain-dead patients are put out of their misery in ways familiar to the holocaust. But a Jean Rollin film can't be complete without some sex/nudity. And while scenes like that don't seem to fit for this kind of story, us grindhouse freaks aren't ones to complain about them being added (Take note that most of the sex scenes happen to end in violence, by the way) But one thing I really did admire was that Rollin didn't go for the predictable route in this one. The movie could've ended a dozen ways, but he sure threw me off guard by ending this with a fitting conclusion. As a result, the hauntingly beautiful final shot is one of the most moving sequences I've seen in recent times.

Reviewed by Laydback