The Magnus Archives fears as movies - The Hunt
Sorry guys I actually had this ready for two weeks just forgot to write lol
This seriously has been the easiest list yet, as expected, many movies at least include the hunt, so having it be the most common spotted is natural
1. Jaws (1975) - Steven Spielberg
This list includes a lot of classics, but I tried to have some different movies as you go. Anyways, I'll start by the classic still because you look at it and go "yeah, makes sense"
Jaws is literally about hunting a shark. Can it get more obvious?
Look, I'm a shark lover, they're just living their lifes and we are the ones invading their spaces, we cannot blame them for defending their homes. And this movie undoubtly made some SERIOUS damage to their image, and I do not condone it.
HOWEVER as a movie lover as well I need to admit this movie is goddam GREAT. Nice movie and keeps your attention the whole time.
Although having a real animal as an antagonist is supposed to make you more scared and intensify your experience (even when you do not live close to the beach, and I know that because my grandma watched this movie WHEN IT CAME OUT and said she went home scared a shark would appear out of her gate lmao. This is not the level of fear you feel watching it nowadays, but you get the point), you also need to keep in mind that this should not affect your perception of how realiity works, sharks don't have morality and are not villains of the real world. Got it? AWESOME! Then go watch the movie and have a lot of fun.
2. Halloween (1978) - John Carpenter
I did mention John Carpenter was one of my favorite directors, so this should be no surprise.
Ok, this one ALMOST went to The Eye list, following the idea that Michael Myers is a sorta stalker. HOWEVER I think this is just one small aspect of the movie that, in the context, is just as much about the hunt. He does not stalk because of a sick desire or obsession in his victim, he stalks like a predator stalks their prey, hiding in the background, just waiting for the right opportunity to strike. This is hunting.
This movie is remarkable, is not the beggining of the slasher genre but it IS the one to popularize it.
Although by todays standards of horror this movie is not scary at all, it is still an amazing watch for those who are not looking to have nightmares at night, but just looking to appreciate movies that marked the history of cinema in some way.
I would even dare to say this movie is sort of funny nowadays. We now see tension as more of silence and limited view of the scenario. But this movie is famous for Michael's leimotiff, much like Jaws, and this was the tension of the time, it meant the source of fear is close, and we should be ready (as in TENSE) for what they're about to do, it's meant to cause anxiety. However nowadays the standards changed, and listening to a music play every single time the villain appears looks a bit funny. This is not a bad thing, is just an analysis about how the times changed, that's natural, and I absolutely love looking for these differences.
I could talk a lot more about this movie, between the classics of slashers this is my favorite one, there's just so many details about the movie itself and the historical context it's set in. But I'll keep it to myself. You're warned this is a piece of it's time and should not fulfill how todays movies are made.
3. Scream (1996) - Wes Craven
Halloween is what popularized the slasher genre, Scream is what saved this genre when it was dying.
I don't need to go into details about how this movie is amazing, right? It literally gave a whole new look to the genre. Like, no one thought about TWO killers.
It's also an even more amazing watch if you love these movies, because this is clearly a love letter to slashers. It's someone passionate about horror movies and who's trying to honor it's legacy while also having originality and it's own identity.
I know everyone already knows the plot of this movie, damn I even included this here because no way you're reading this list without at least some knowledge about horror, but I do believe this movie does not lose it's fun when you know the plot.
4. The Night of the Hunter (1955) - Charles Laughton
This movie is very unfortunatly a movie very ahead of it's time. We'll get to that.
I KNOW you see that this movie is from the fifties and think it'll be a pain to watch it and the quality will suck and there'll be no color but NO!! THE MOVIE MIGHT BE OLD BUT THE QUALITY IS INCREDIBLE. Unless you watch it in a platform with therrible quality, which wasn't my case, I swear you can watch this movie with a camera quality that details everything.
Anyways, the movie follows two children, whose father stole a whole ton of money and made them hide it. The father goes to jail, and there meets a preacher who is a serial killer. When the father is hanged, the preacher goes after the children for the money.
It's a very heavy and scary movie, you KNOW those children are not safe with this man around, but they can't really ask for help, they're children, no one believes them and everyone thinks the preacher is a man of god. And the ones who believe don't really have enough power to do something about it.
Until the end, which has one of the best scenes I've ever seen, it is the scene that made this movie deserve it's place in this list - because believe me, I almost would put this in The Web list, since a lot of it is manipulation from the preacher. But then you see how this is all hunting, a hunting modern day, a hunting not about the prey, but about what it has.
The scene I talked about is by the ending, the children are under the care of an old widowed lady. It's late at night, she's guarding the house with a gun while waiting for when the preacher will attack them. There is this song that the preacher sings throught the movie, much like what I said in the Halloween analysis it is the preachers theme song, warning us he's close by... But this time is different, it's tense, it scares us because it puts us in the place of the children, the song is not part of a movie soundtrack meant to give emotion for the audience, it's a song IN the movie, the preacher IS singing, he's warning THE CHILDREN that no matter where they are, he'll find them, and every time we hear this we know he's getting close. But this time, late at night, when we only see his sillhouette through a window, the lady starts humming along the melody. The preacher is not the only hunter around anymore, there's someone capable enough to protect the prey this time.
This movie is FULL of symbolism, one of my favorite is one very on your face, where the preacher keeps calling the children his "little lambs". LAMBS.
This movie was also very inspired by a REAL case, just inspired, so it has it's changes, but that just adds layers to the realism and how scary it is.
Gosh can you guesss how much I loved this movie?
But as mentioned at the beggining, this movie has been made in a very unfortunate time for itself.
This movie was not well received AT ALL. In the 50's people were very conservative, so having a movie with this HEAVY theme and where the main villain is A PREACHER? Who uses religion not only as justification for his acts but also as a shield from society? A mother who neglects her children because of manipulation? A strong widowed old lady who manages to stop evil from getting to the children?
Yeah, people were not liking that at all.
This will absolutely kill the vibe of this list if I get into details. But this movie received so much hate that ended up making the director to never make another movie again. There's a bit more to the story, but I'll not mention it as is very sad.
Nowadays this movie is considered a masterpiece, a movie ahead of it's time where people did not have enough of an open mind to accept it's geniusness. And it's very depressing thinking how the director wasn't given the chance to explore a lot more of what he would be able to accomplish if people weren't so cruel to him.
5. Jennifer's Body (2009) - Karyn Kusama
Let's make this list a bit happier again!!
This is another movie who was NOT well received at the time of release, and nowadays is recognized by how smart it is in it's message. But this one does not have such unfortunate ending to it as the other one.
This movie is AMAZING. It has character, it has story, it has meaning, it has a critic to society.
I think you really need to look at the hidden meanings and the critic the movie is making for you to truly understand how horrific this movie is, otherwise the movie looks very superficial and I think this is what made people dislike it at the time. People were not ready to look more into a movie than it looked and didn't want to accept the heavy implications of what the movie is about.
Shock, but this movie is not about a woman who was sacrificed for the success of a band. It's a lot more than that, this is just the superfial of it.
I like how the movie portray Jennifer herself, because you KNOW she's a victim, but that doesn't excuse her terrible actions, they just make her character more complex. She doesn't fit the "perfect victim" trope, as well as she is not a complete evil character. She has flaws, god she's an horrible friend and even a horrible person after some point, but that doesn't mean she's deserving of what happened to her.
Same goes for Needy, she's not a saint, although she's a MUCH better person compared to Jennifer, she's complex, she's obsessed with her best friend and it deals in an amazing way with how much she truly CARES for Jennifer, but also resents her.
I truly think this is the perfect piece to watch and start seeing different analysis of what it means and what it portrays, HOW it portrays those things and how the characters are complex.
6. Elfie Hopkins: Cannibal Hunter (2012) - Ryan Andrews
I did say I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about Aneurin Barnard, why'd you think this would be different?
A lot of people hate this movie, but I LOVED IT. No it's not horror, it's the one movie in every list that is not horror, so be warned.
But seriously I just had so much fun watching it.
This movie is like a childrens movie but for adults. I think you can seriously understand this if you watch it.
But just relax, it's SOOO fun and charismatic. It's all silly.
My biggest problem is the title, the neighbors being cannibals was clarly meant to be a plot in the movie, so why include it in the title? You spoiled YOUR OWN MOVIE??? That's dumb, but the movie is still nice.
Basically this movie is about Elfie Hopkins (shock), and her friend Dylan, and when new neighbors appear they start investigating thinking there's something very weird about them, and then things unravel.
It's The Hunt from the pov of the neighbors but just as much from the pov of Elfie. The family are cannibals, hunting people, and Elfie is hunting for proof, trying to expose them.
I also have a bigass problem with how Dylan and Elfie end up together by the end, because this is a whole thing in the movie where Elfie doesn't see him that way but still deeply cares about him, but just as a friend. But this is such a small portion of the movie that I just don't think it's enough to make me dislike it.
Just enjoy the ride, seriously, go back to your lightheart of when you were a kid and enjoy this movie like that.
7. Run Sweetheart Run (2020) - Shana Feste
This will be an interesting review, because at the same time that is appreciated the message and MANY of the things the movie does, I do feel like a lot of it falls flat when you think a little bit longer about it.
This movie is about a woman who goes on a date and then the man starts to hunt her through the city.
This is very obviously about the woman experience with man, like I don't really need to expand much on it, they treat us like prey and like it's fun when we try to escape.
But there are some things worth mentioning about this movie.
There's some serious spoilers from this point on, so my overrall opinion is that it's a good movie with some serious problems.
First of all, I really like how it has a whole point about how community is important. One of the things the man tells the protagonist is that she can't ask for help, "no one cares", and by this point in the movie we really do believe that - When she had blood on her and tried to ask for two woman's help they treat her as a crazy person, when she explains her situation to another woman she is first understanding, but when she realizes she could be put in danger for protecting her she throws the protagonist under the bus, when she calls the police the police... Well, it's the police, they're on the man's side. We truly think he's right, she's all alone in this situation.
But from that point on we actually see him being proven WRONG, people DO care. Her ex go to her and even brings her home when he sees she's in distress (although he's a bit of an asshole, he still does what he can to protect her), her ex best friend - who betrayed her in one of the most disgusting ways - is ready to kill the man who's doing it to the protagonist and helps her going even beyond what someone would normally do, we see a bunch of strangers saving the protagonist when she's being harrassed, even the texi driver sees the state she's in and doesn't even charge her ride because that's what he's able to do for her. People DO care, there ARE people who will stand up and help you when you need.
But there's a BIG problem with that as well, that is that EVERY person that helps her dies (with the exception of the last one), which is just... Terrible. I'm not against saying that those people, by chosing to help, are also chosing to put themselves in some sort of danger, BUT it's just terrible to have ALL of them die, the only one's that doesn't die are the one's that choose to not actually envolve themselves, like the taxi driver mentioned. I feel like that only conveys that
1) Help someone in true danger? The consequences will go towards you
2) Everyone that helps you when you're in danger gets HURT
Which is just a terrible thing to say when it's a whole point in the movie how she COULDN'T have done it without help. She only survived because she had people by her side. Yes, she's strong and she's smart and she has a lot of credits on how she handled the situation, but it's also very important and a big role how she has a support system.
Another thing is, for most of the movie I think it's really cool how the Man is kinda mystical at the same time that he's just a person. You see him finding her at places he couldn't have any idea that she went, you see him surviving things he couldn't normally, you see him getting at her at a faster speed than anyone could. But at the same time he looks just like any man. He WALKS towards her, he has a normal appearance, he can get hurt just like anyone.
This is SO cool. He's just a person, because he's MEANT to represent how a usual and normal man can be A MONSTER. The small mystical bits of him don't really break the illusion of how we are just looking at a normal MAN. What makes him a monster is not those weird things that makes you question if he's human, what makes him a monster is what he's doing to this woman, how he's terrorizing her and going after her just because its fun for him.
... And then all that goes through the window because they just make him a demon or whatever
Supposedly he just created the patriarchy in humanity
Yeah, the ending is very disappointing. Is nice how it is THE PROTAGONIST that defeats him, she shows how she has her strenght even while being helped. But they just fumbled with the whole demons vs angel narrative that appears, it just ruins the realism the movie was having up until this point.
I also hate how the Man breaks the fourth wall. It really has no purpose other than telling us "hey! Look! He's not human! He knows there's cameras!" And then they do nothing with it at all when they clearly could just keep all the other stuff to let us know he's not human really.
It's a cool movie overrall and succeed in a lot of place, but it has some serious problems that could very easily be fixed and that would make it's message a lot more impactful.
8. The Ritual (2017) - David Bruckner
Beggining? Absolutely terrific, a fresh air amidst many movies that don't know how to build tension. Ending? They fumbled so fucking hard.
It's about a group of friends (man) who often goes in adventures. When an accident happens and one of them dies, they decide to make a homage to him going to a trip that was his idea, a hike in Sweden.
Nice concept, already puts a heaviness in the situation, as none of them truly wants to be there, but they want to honor their friend. It's sad and so fitting for a horror movie.
One of them gets hurt, so they decide to take a shortcut through the forest (because men are dumb).
While there, some fucked up things start happening and they realize there's something in the woods going after them.
I saw a lot of people saying this movie is The Eye, and I do believe there's heavy influence! But I think the Eye aspects is just the predators antics to play with it's prey, and that's why it's in this list.
This movie KNOWS how to build tension. It's slow, plays with your mind and never actually shows the creature, we just see some movement and snipets of it. I also always LOVE when the design makes a predator look like a prey, in this case like a deer.
Downside of this part: They're all white man with bad personalities, so you don't really like knowing what they're up to.
Anyways it's all good and very scary even if you're not interested in the characters, only the protagonist has a bit more going on with him, as he witnessed the murder of his friend.
First hour of this movie? AMAZING. I was so excited to see how everything would turn up in the climax.
... Turns out they just decide to change the whole tone of the movie out of nowhere and just forget how they made the scary scenes so, well, scary.
Spoilers ahead: there's a cult (WAAAAAYYY too overused plot and jusst doesn't really fit in what we've been seeing until now in the movie), that worship and sacrifice people to this creature in return for eternal life.
And then the protagonist kills everyone and escapes the creature.
The ending is even worse because remember how I said it was a cool idea how they don't show the creature fully? Yeah, now they did and... The design is really cool, but I kinda laughed when he just decided to put on a little show for the protagonist when it was hunting him.
Clearly the protagonist lives because of plot armor, the creature had MANY chances to kill him in the final battle.
And the cult just doesn't serve much other than to die and say this creature is ancient. So they didn't even use that much of the overused plot. I guess it's there just so the protagonist can get a gun.
Seriously, when I just think about the first half and the second half of this movie I get whiplash because it seems like COMPLETELY different movies with different subgenres under horror. Idk what happened in the production.
I don't think the ending ruins the WHOLE movie, but it certainly drains all the fun you have in the beggining.
It's not really even that the second half is bad BAD, it just doesn't fit into what the movie was building itself to be.
9. 30 Days of Night (2007) - David Slade
I don't think I've ever watched a vampire movie that manages to be this fucking boring.
You're into more bad movies? Nothing against that, I like some bad movies myself, that's why this is even included in this list, because I try to have a little bit of everyones taste. So go enjoy it.
But seriously, it's so nothing this movie that I can't really think about what to complaim, it's just this bad. I kinda zoned out and that's my fault.
10. It Follows (2014) - David Robert Mitchell
I KNOW the sex demon has a lot of haters, because I'm friends with people who despise this movie lol
But I do think this movie has some things to say about STD's and how it works, turning it into a horror seems like a nice idea.
Do I think it's well excecuted? Not most of the time, but there are it's highlights.
I watched it a long time ago, and at the same time that I don't really like it, I don't think it's necessarily bad.
I guess I like to watch the meanings of this movie a lot more than the movie itself, and that's fine too.
Honorable Mention: Yellowjackets (2021) - Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson
There is no better series for the Hunt than this one, like seriously.
I know a lot of people think this is the Flesh, because of cannibalism, BUT YOU'RE WRONG!! I talk a lot more in detail about this in The Flesh list, but I think cannibalism really needs the contexts to be put into one fear in specific. This one is the Hunt, is not eating someone for the sake of eating someone, it is a matter of survival, but most of all: it's just the final result of hunting.
Don't expect much in the first season btw, the cult really only starts in the second season.
This is the BEST series I've ever watched and also THE WORST.
There's two main narratives in this series. The past one, where a team of teenagers soccer players have a plane crash and have to survive in the middle of the forest. And the future one... Where it is the future.
The past? AMAZING. ABSOLUTE CINEMA. All the characters are so complex and their roles say so much about them as people and how each of them starts to slowly lose their minds the more they can't esscape the woods and IT'S SOOOO GOOOODD
And the future... Fuck it's one of the most boring tasteless nothingburger things I've ever seen. It spoils the past, because you see some of them survived. It has nothing really that interesting going on, and HALF of the show is that.
Obviously has some cool parts in the future, but I would seriously just cut all of that because it's mostly horrible.
HM 2: Lord of the Flies (2026) - Marc Munden
Turns out it really was for the best that I was too lazy for two weeks to finish writing this.
I literally finished this series yesterday and it's SOOOOO GOOOOOD. Also Yellowjackets has a lot of inspiration from this (the book I mean, that came out in 1954 and yk, inspired just a bunch of other stuff and is very famous and well known), I just put Yellowjackets first because it's a full series for you to watch, whilst this only have 4 episodes.
But seriously it's just so well made and it explores SO MUCH about humanity and all through the eyes of CHILDREN, which just makes everything scarier.
Love all the characters, absolutely adore the sound choices, the filming choices were spot on.
I seriously don't have any complains about, and I have the approval to say that because my friend is a massive fan of the book and she loved the series too.
Ok that's it for now, I swear I'll finish writing the next list just as soon as I have all the movies ready lmao
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