- Starring
- Ginger Gilmartin, Mary Buss, Ben Hall
- Writers
- Mickey Reece, John Selvidge
- Director
- Mickey Reece
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 90 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
Climate of the Hunter is the latest film from independent American filmmaker Mickey Reese, who has been churning out micro-budget genre films over the last decade. He is best recognized for his conversational filmmaking style, as he described it himself in an interview as “people talking in rooms”. In many ways, that description is applicable to this film as it is heavily dialogue driven and restricted to very few locations.
Climate of the Hunter opens with two sisters, Alma (Gilmartin) and Elizabeth (Buss), awaiting the arrival of their childhood friend Wesley (Hall) after twenty years apart. The film immediately introduces us to an eerie atmosphere that continues to build as the sisters reunite with Wesley. It becomes immediately clear that each character have lived tragic lives though the extent is unclear. As the three reconnect, it stirs up the sisters’ old feelings for Wesley, subsequently causing a rift in their relationship. The more time the pair spend with Wesley, it begins to become abundantly clear that he has a dark secret. While the premise may appear to be cliche and easy to predict on paper, Reese does deserve credit for crafting a film that subverts audiences expectations in many ways. The film takes turns that are certainly jarring but don’t entirely work. However throughout the film, Reese proves that he’s willing to take risks as a filmmaker that will likely throw the audience for a loop.
Unfortunately, what makes the film unique also brings up some interesting questions about how we perceive people, Climate of the Hunter is relatively aimless as it takes a ridiculously long time to get to any point. A conversational thriller in this vein relies very heavily on the strength of the dialogue. While there are certainly some engaging conversations in the first leg of the film, the screenplay often gets bogged down in convoluted side-plots and fails to give the characters the depth they need to be compelling. Meanwhile, the film is so concerned with building an atmosphere that when it finally reaches the point in which it was slowly building up to, it doesn’t feel rewarding whatsoever.
At the end of the day, Climate of the Hunter features some interesting ideas, but the inconsistent nature of the screenplay make it a frustrating watch. However, It’s clear that Reese is a promising filmmaker with a singular vision that has the potential to craft a truly special film, if paired with the right script and given a slightly larger budget.
still courtesy of CUFF
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