Night of the Hunted

Is this Cronenberg or Lynch?
Jean Rollin's film will definetly appeal to fans of the above named directors. It has a surreal, dreamlike quality that consistently keeps the viewer guessing as to what is going on. The story is one of lost identity, paranioa and inescapable fate, that one will remember long after viewing. The DVD is thankfully subtitled rather than dubbed and the actors voice inflections during crucial scenes help attain the atmosphere of dread. Be warned that the film contains graphic, probably x-rated sex scenes and strong violence. If you are looking for something different, give it a try.

A poem of the pulp imagination
Set in the near future and taking place in an eerily desolate Paris, Night of the Hunted centers on Elisabeth (hauntingly played by Brigitte Lahaie), a young woman who is suffering from a bizarre form of amnesia; she can only remember the present and once an experience ends, it leaves her mind as well. As she herself explains it early on, Elisabeth is doomed to live eternally in the moment. However, she is not alone in her affliction. She lives in a "Black Tower" with several others also cursed to live continually in the moment. Though she is supposedly under the treatment of a coldly impersonal Doctor and his sinister aide, Solange, Elisabeth is really more of a prisoner than a patient. When Elisabeth finally manages to escape the tower, she is picked up by a young man named Robert and promptly forgets just where and from what she escaped. After spending the night with Robert, she is recaptured by the doctor and Solange and taken back to the tower. She promptly forgets Robert...

Brigitte Lahaie in an unexpectedly compassionate role.
Most fans know Brigitte Lahaie as the French adult films actress who earned a cult following through her work for director Jean Rollin in erotic horror films like "Fascination." But in "Night of the Hunted" she gives an unexpectedly compassionate performance in a film with the requisite gore and nudity, but also real emotional impact. For a free catalog of Ms. Lahaie's rare French horror and adult films, send your full mailing address to videoeuropa@hotmail.com

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