[FANTASTIC FEST 2022]: ‘PROJECT WOLF HUNTING’ BRINGS MAYHEM AND MERRIMENT

PROJECT WOLF HUNTING is what I would call a “blender movie”: take aspects of disparate films, toss them into a blender, and the resulting cinematic smoothie is a crossbreed of these various titles. In the case of writer/director Kim Hong-sun’s newest, the ingredients include CON AIR, PITCH BLACK, ALIEN, TRAIN TO BUSAN: PENINSULA, and gallons of blood. Make no mistake, PROJECT WOLF HUNTING is not the most cerebral of films…but it is a heaping helping of brutal fun. Every punch lands with a loud echoing wallop, every cut leads to a geyser of blood, every gunshot produces a bullet-riddled body. This is the film OVERLORD wishes it were. While it falters in sticking the landing, PROJECT WOLF HUNTING is a raucous good time that is best enjoyed in a crowd that will unabashedly clap after watching a villainous criminal get horrifically split in twain with a knife. It’s THAT kind of movie.

A group of criminals is being transported by tanker from the Philippines back to their native country of South Korea. Dozens of detectives are escorting the violent thugs while a small contingency of workers attends to the boat’s needs. When shit hits the fan, bodies start dropping and turning the journey into a veritable warzone. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to most onboard, in the bowels of the ship lies an almost century-old experiment that was built for war and will make its way through those onboard, be they crew, cops, or crooks.

You may notice there are no character names or actors’ attribution in the previous synopsis because, well, there’s not a lot of character growth in this movie. This combined with the “not the most cerebral of films” may make PROJECT WOLF HUNTING sound shallow and stupid. It isn’t. It’s a very cleverly done and meticulously constructed action project that favors spectacle over subtlety and is much more interested in provoking a visceral reaction rather than an analytical one. There is a ton of style in the way these fights and kills unfold across the screen, all beautifully captured in crimson gory glory by DP Yoon Ju-hwan, but it’s a spray of rapid fire from a cinematic machine gun; non-stop action and bloodletting that gets pulses pounding and audiences immediately absorbed. While not many characters have much development (and some don’t even have names), there is a sense that anyone can be killed at any time (and always in the most brutal of ways) which makes for surprising stakes and viewer investment. If every sequence poses some real danger, then it’s hard to turn away.

To be certain, PROJECT WOLF HUNTING takes its time to build up to the action. Setting the scene and clearly delineating the different, opposing sides involved. There’s the extradited criminals, the embattled detectives, the horrible monster, an in-over-their-heads doctor and nurse, and back on the mainland is a squad of special forces monitoring the situation. Meanwhile, there is also a shadowy figure watching over the transportation of this monster and who has a vested, and very personal, interest in seeing it brought to South Korea. Director Kim sets up the pieces nicely and even establishes the geography of the sprawling ship well to better understand how the characters will interact and clash across the map in the course of the movie. Clear stakes, clear sides, clear settings; in other hands this would be overly simplistic and reductive, but PROJECT WOLF HUNTING keeps everything moving quick enough to be entertaining while establishing it’s all prelude to a storm.

And when that storm hits, it will be amazing. As mentioned, every bullet leads to an eruption of blood spray, every punch or kick lands with a massive “WHOMP” sound, all of it usually leading to the floors and walls awash in veritable buckets of blood. There are certainly films with more finesse in their fight choreography and viscera in their carnage, but PROJECT WOLF HUNTING makes it all feel extremely intense like one of those ultra-violent anime films from the ‘90s like NINJA SCROLL. It’s all extremely entertaining, with the monster plot figuring a way to make it even more brutal and not cluttering the story at all. That is, until the ending. The script dovetails into a larger story of a greater conspiracy that is mildly interesting but is mostly used as an excuse to have some better fights (that’s good!) while setting up what feels like a convoluted and unnecessary sequel (that’s bad!). There is temporary resolution to the main narrative, but the movie might as well end with “To Be Continued” with the fact that a late addition to the story suddenly becomes important, or at least it will be important in the (assumed) follow-up entry. It’s a whimper ending of a film that has only been a bang up to then, which diminishes the feeling one will have overall of the experience. Always stick the landing, kids.

PROJECT WOLF HUNTING is not the most X-TREME film of all time and it’s not necessarily that revolutionary in its story or stunts. But it’s a thrilling collection of outrageous fights with spectacular splatter that is exceptionally entertaining. If it had ended on that same high that sustained so much of its run time, it may be an all timer. But its greed for a sequel undercuts the impact. Still it’s a lot of fun to watch—particularly with a crowd who is up for it, like at Fantastic Fest—and is a delicious dollop of bloody brutality.

 

 

 

Rob Dean
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