Spoilers should’ve gone electric.

I think a thriller works best when you “lower” the stakes down to a personal level and a mundane setting. You don’t need a bank heist or an alien invasion. Instead, we’re going into an ubiquitous convenience store next to the typical middle-of-nowhere gas station. If you’re familiar of this kind of cat-and-mouse-without-an-apparent-reason subgenre, you might find this plot a bit too simple to engage. However, it does work as a straight up thriller, if you don’t pay too close attention.

(Credit: Shudder)

Night of the Hunted (2013) is directed by Franck Khalfoun. It was written by Glen Freyer and Franck Khalfoun based on the Spanish film, La Noche del Ratón (2015), which original screenplay was written by Rubén Ávila Calvo and David R.L. In this iteration, Alice (Camille Rowe) is on a road trip with her co-worker John (Jeremy Scippio), who she’s having an affair with behind her husband’s back. They stop at an isolated gas station along the way to fill up while Alice goes into the convenient store to grab some chips. She’s unable to find the dependent and completely confused until she gets shot in the arm. And so it begins.

Now there is a subplot about Alice being a marketing exec for big pharmaceutical company and the sniper taking shots across the way being into far right conservative conspiracy theories. There’s a possible hinted connection between the sniper somehow knowing who Alice is and/or she having an affair. I’m not one to reveal plot points in my reviews, but I am mentioning them because… Drumroll… They don’t come to fruition. None of them actually progress. They’re stated at some point. That’s it.

It can work if you just turn your mind off. In a way that has become eerily realistic, you can picture a sniper with motives that don’t make any sense because they rarely do. The sniper is a cornucopia of anti-woke sentimentality that was just short of racism and sexism to hit the far right bingo card. A few decades back, I’d claim this as a plot hole. Now it almost feels like the usual headline from the news. As for the main character of Alice, she’s not really an underdog until she’s pinned down. I think it works better if you don’t particularly like the character. So, if you’re willing to put aside any aspirations of all backstories wrapping up at the end, this is just a survival story.

Recommended if you’re looking for a thriller where you can turn off your brain with reservations. Perhaps it was just my work week, but I immediately relegated the sniper’s radio manifesto as babbling nonsense pretending to be ideology. It’s also not a stretch of the imagination to consider this is a completely random shooting. Those are all too familiar now. Worth a watch if you’re in the mood for a thriller without any ulterior motives but just straight suspense.

That will do for now.