HAPPY HUNTING

Warren Novak is the type to soak his corn flakes in whiskey as
soon as the morning starts. Yet this time he has a good reason to
get drunk like a skunk. He has just learned that he’s the father of a
girl in Mexico City and he has accidentally killed two crack dealers,
with their colleagues quickly on his heels. An exploded tire later,
Warren lands in Bedford Flats, a lonely town a few miles away from
Mexico that feels like an old John Wayne movie. It’s populated by
nice Christians who are very attached to their traditions. Bedford Flats
was at its peek the place to hunt buffalo once a year. But because
there aren’t any buffalo left, the inhabitants had to find some new
game to hunt. In this case, anyone who passes by during hunting
season. Inevitably, Warren, with his bad habit of shaking like a leaf
when he’s lacking alcohol, has the ideal profile to play the prey in
the company of other unfortunates.
Happy Hunting is a lot more than a contemporary B-movie. Midway
between Deliverance and American Nightmare, this first film by Joe
Dietsch
and Louie Gibson (son of…) is incredibly inventive and sarcastic
in its subtext, which makes it a multilayered thrill ride.