The Night Of The Hunted — The Night Of The Hunted( Blu-Ray/ UHD)
French euro cult director Jean Rollin is most known for his arty, at times macabrely tripped out vampire-focused exotic horror films of the late 60s to 70’s. A few of his releases step out of this template, and one such film was The Night Of The Hunted. The early 1980s film is a stark ‘n’ cold (largely) tower block set horror thriller- regarding the escape of one the patients of a secret clinic. It mixes paranoid thriller and medical horror tropes- with a fair bit of female flesh, fleeting gore, and unsettling sexualized violence. Here from the fine folks at Powerhouse Films is a very well-deserved new release of this lesser-seen/ known Rollin picture. The release comes as either a Blu-Ray or UHD disc- taking in a classy new 4k scan, both new and archive commentary tracks, as well as a good selection of extras, and an eighty-page inlay booklet.
The Night Of The Hunted ( aka La Nuit Des Traquées ) appeared in the year 1980. It was Rollin’s twenty-ninth feature- filmed mainly in and around a plush and sleek office tower block in La Défense- France's major business district which is 3km from the centre of Paris.
The film opens with Robert(Alain Duclos) a tight curly-haired twenty-something driving through the night. Into his road steps a female figure in a night grown. She seems very upset, confused, and unsure of where she is/ who she is. She gets in his car- leaving another completely nude woman calling her name Elysabeth from just beyond the road
Robert agrees to drive her back to Paris, but mid-way there Elysabeth- played by blond euro cult star Brigitte Lahaie - gets out of the car in somewhat of a panic attack- he convinces her back into the car, and they go to his flat. One thing leads to another & they make love- with Elysabeth seemingly having a real connection with Robert. The next morning he’s up & out to work- Elysabeth remains confused- with little of her memory still remaining, but she seems happy enough. Fairly soon into the apartment appears Dr Franis(Bernard Papineau) a rather sinister grey-haired man, and his red dress hat-wearing assistant Solange(Rachel Mhas). They convince Elysabeth to come with them- arriving at a towering glass business block building.
They take her to a secure & sealed ‘clinic’ where there seem to be more (mainly) female patients who have lost their memories too. With the film slowly but surely edging up the tension of the situation, within the sleek & cold tower block setting.
Acting-wise Lahaie gives a career highlight performance as the amnesia & emotionally fraught Elysabeth- really selling both her character & the film itself. Duclos pops in & out throughout the film, and does well as the besotted Robert. Papineau doesn’t have a huge amount of dialogue as Dr Franis- but he manages to portray well the vibe of sinister, and cold unease. With the rest of the fairly small cast well selected.
The tower block set scenes have a very early Cronenberg vibe- with Rollin really creating a feeling of chilling unease and a sinister modern minimalist vibe. The film features a few effective music cues- moving between uneasy warbling female choir vocals, and chilling tone ambience. However, we also get the most effective use of just billowing wind tones when outside of the building- which amps up both the tension & unease.
As this is a Rollin film there is a fair bit of female flesh on display- but this is largely used in a relevant & effective manner. There are moments of jarring violence & its aftermath- which are largely very effecting. The whole film has a tangible feeling of melancholia, which is wonderfully enhanced by the sleek yet minimally stark tower block setting.
Having seen and enjoyed a fair bit of Rollin’s filmography- I was of course aware of The Night Of The Hunted but hadn’t seen it. So when I saw this was coming out I was most keen to check it out. And I must say it’s largely a chilling engaging, at times emotionally fraught/ troubled blend of the horror and thriller genres. Yes, it feels different from most of Rollin’s other work- but there are still touches of his normal themes/ tropes present- just in another setting. If you enjoy nicely building & mysterious thrillers- with some emotional punch and tension The Night Of The Hunted will be for you
This new release features a crisp and classy 4k scan- which really enhances the whole cold and foreboding tone of the film. Moving onto the totally new extras front we get a commentary from genre expert/ track pro Tim Lucas- and as always with a Lucas track it’s wonderfully researched, in-depth, and wholly fascinating. He starts by discussing how the film wasn’t one of the director's favourites, though of course stands as one of his most non-typical creations. He talks about how much of the director's other work focuses on nostalgia & fantasy. We get a brief early bio of female lead Brigitte Lahaie - before she appeared in her first Rollin film 1978’s The Grape Of Death. We find out it was shot in just ten days- first released in France in August 1980, with the X-rated version appearing in Jan of 1980. We get a more in-depth bio of male lead lain Duclos- who Lucas thinks looks like David Naughton( An American Werewolf In London)- which I can certainly see…though I was getting vibes of an older Zach Galligan( Gremlins). He discusses the richness of the new 4k print, and compares it to previous prints. Later on, he talks about the way the film's editor removed some of the film's frame to create a creepily jittering effect. He compares the film to the work of Cronenberg in particular Videodrome. He talks about the film's theme, comments on key scenes, and much more. A must-play! There’s The Gulf Of Emptiness( 20.47) with genre expect/ author Stephen Thrower. He starts off by giving a good overview of Rollin’s filmography, before moving into focus on the film to hand- as usual another excellent featurette from Mr Thrower. We have Le Pont ( 5.00) which finds Rollin collaborators Bouyxou and Lahaie discussing the film’s final viaduct scene.
Onto the archive side of things, we get the following- Perdues: ‘La Nuit des traquées’(20.00) which is a recently updated French doc about the director- featuring interviews with Lahaie and key collaborators Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Natalie Perrey. Forty Years Together ( 17.00) an updated interview with the film's producer Lionel Wallmann. A Delectable Presence(16.00) an updated interview with Lahaie. A 2007 intro to the film from the director(3.00). Selected scene commentary from the director, and selected scene commentary from both the director & lead actress. Inserts and alternative scenes: two soft sequences and a hardcore excerpt from Filles traquées. Original trailer, and image gallery.
After seeing much of Rollin’s more standard fare over the years- I must say The Night Of The Hunted was a real revelation to me, and certainly now stands as one of my favourite films by the director. And once again Powerhouse has done another stellar job with the extras- be they new or old, and of course there is the classy 4k scan too.