'You are the only memory i have right now'--Jean Rollin's 'Night of the Hunted' (Night Of The Hunted (DVD))

Member Name: LornaGreen

Product:	Night Of The Hunted (DVD)
Date:	11/06/09 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great theme tune, scary black tower, BrigitteLahaie

Disadvantages: probably not the best edition out there

This 1980 Jean Rollin film is something of a departure from his surreal and exciting 'Vampire' cycle, and yet is nonetheless unmistakably in his style.

'Night of the Hunted' is a story about a girl who has no memory(the wonderful Brigitte Lahaie), who escapes from and is subsequently re-incarcerated in a huge black tower block. She apparently lives there, presided over by mysterious medical staff alongside many others suffering from the same condition. Are the doctors trying to help her or destroy her? The plot is one of Rollin's most linear and immediately coherent.

It also appears as one of his most stark, plain films--mostly shot inside 'the black tower', with it's frighteningly bland white rooms juxtaposed with red giallo-like corridors--which heightens the sense of the patients' only two moods--emptiness and anxiety. To further this the soundtrack (by Gary Sandeur) largely remains quiet if not silent but is peppered by some great theme music pieces--wordless female vocals sigh a somehow familiar tune that is more anxious and tearful than it is sensual. The film's simplicity also serves to strengthen the effect of it's bleak yet powerful images.

There's a surprising dancing scene magically thrown in amongst the empty, despairing gloom, but this film is quite squarely of the hopelessly downbeat kind. There are an array of shamelessly tear-jerking moments that I probably wouldn't accept coming from any other director, as the patients try to lighten their anxiety by trading invented 'memories' or making the most of the moment with physical pleasures. Some forget how to balance, some forget how to eat.... with Rollin these emotive scenarios all seem necessary and poignant. 'Night of the Hunted' poses interesting questions about the ability to 'live in the moment' and the role that memory plays in our lives.
There is quite a lot of gun wielding, and fairly liberal amounts of gruesome death and spattered blood, but the greatest horror elements are essentially psychological.

The extras on this Redemption DVD include two extra scenes, one of which is a 'harder' sex scene involving actors I'm not sure I actually remember from the film. There is no explanation provided but I gather it was an 'add-on' scene catering for market demands rather than a 'cut' one.
There is also a very small stills gallery and trailers for 'Killers Moon', Jess Franco's 'The Demons', and the satanic sluts film.....
As with a number of other Rollin films, shopping around will probably reward you with a better DVD edition, but this version doesn't seem bad.

Summary: Downbeat, fascinating film about memory loss.