The Head Hunter (originally titled The Head) is a 2018 American independentfantasyhorror film directed by Jordan Downey, who also co-wrote, produced, and edited the film. It stars Norwegian actor Christopher Rygh as the title character, Cora Kaufman, and Aisha Ricketts. The film centers on the title character, who works as a bounty hunter for a local kingdom, all the while he awaits the eventual return of the creature responsible for the murder of his daughter.
Influenced by Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1981 film Quest for Fire, The X-Files and Tales From the Crypt television series, The Head Hunter was developed by Downey and Kevin Stewart. The filming location was decided long before the story was developed. The initial concept came about during a writer's retreat, in which the filmmakers had assembled and hosted at Stewart's family home in Soutelo Mourisco, a small village in Northern Portugal. Norwegian actor Christopher Rygh was cast as the leading role, in his feature-film debut, after filmmakers discovered him while searching a casting website. Principal photography began in Bragança, Portugal, while additional scenes were shot in Norway, and California.
The Head Hunter first premiered at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2018, as a part of the "Panorama Fantàstic" section. While the film was screened at Sitges, and Nightmares Film Festival under the title The Head, but the title was later changed to The Head Hunter due to lukewarm reactions. The film would garner several awards and nominations at the various film festivals it was screened at, and received positive reviews from critics upon its release, with many praising the film's atmosphere, cinematography, and Rygh's performance, though the low budget prompted some criticism.
Plot
In the Dark Ages, after the death of his daughter, a fierce warrior known simply as "The Father" begins amassing a gruesome collection of heads of monsters he stakes to the wall of his cabin. He lives in solitude, with his only company being his horse Jakke. Most of his time is spent repairing his armor, setting traps for animals, visiting his daughter's grave, and using the blood and organs of monsters to create a healing potion that heals wounds almost instantly.
He earns his living as a bounty hunter, hunting down beasts that terrorize a nearby kingdom. Each new bounty is announced by the blow of a horn, and information on the target is posted outside the castle walls. Many times he ventures forth, killing and collecting the heads of these creatures, which he adds to the wall. The father is wounded on several hunts, forcing him to use the elixir to heal himself. During one such hunt, he returns on foot after Jakke is killed. After burying Jakke and visiting his daughter's grave, another bounty is posted. This latest bounty is revealed to be the creature responsible for his daughter's death.
Traveling far north to an island, he finds the monster in a cave. After a hard battle, he finally decapitates the monster and travels home to pay respects to his daughter. His victory is short-lived as one of his jars containing the elixir he left near his window is knocked over and spills over the creature's severed head, bringing it back to life. Without a body, the revived creature drags itself into the surrounding woods in search of a new body. The father later discovers what has transpired and prepares to hunt down the revived creature. As nightfall arrives, he begins a game of wits against the creature, with it digging up the daughter's grave and attaching its head to her corpse. After a lengthy chase, the father seemingly kills the creature by tearing its head from his daughter's corpse and stabbing it repeatedly in the head.
Reburying his daughter the next morning, he returns home. After cleaning up the mess left from the previous night, he leaves the cabin to begin repairs on his armor. While doing so, he suddenly cries out before going silent. A short time passes, and he appears to return to the cabin, carrying what appears to be a severed head, which he pins onto the wall. The head is then revealed to be the father's, and the creature, its head now attached to his body, leaves taking the elixir along with it, gloating as it walks away saying, “Body Mine!”
Cast
Christopher Rygh as Father (The Head Hunter), a lone Viking warrior, and bounty hunter tasked with hunting down monsters for local kingdom
Cora Kaufman as Daughter, Father's child, who was brutally murdered by a mysterious and deadly creature
Aisha Ricketts as The Head (voice), a deadly creature responsible for the brutal murder of the Head Hunter's child
Production
Concept and development
"We’ve seen dragons, and we’ve seen monster battles before, but what we haven’t seen is how a character responds to that stuff."[3]
Writer/director Jordan Downey on the inspiration for the film's story
The Head Hunter was produced and directed by Jordan Downey, who also co-wrote the film's script.[3]
Downey had previously directed several short films, including the 2014 short Critters: Bounty Hunter,[a][5][6][7] making his feature-film debut with the 2008 comedy-horror filmThanksKilling.[8] After the completion of several short films, including Thankskilling 2, Downey and his frequent collaborator Kevin Stewart began developing their next project.[9]
The concept for The Head Hunter was not immediately forthcoming, as Downey later recalled, "We didn't have the idea first, we just had this drive to make a movie [...] So we just sat down, to see if we could come up with something that we could shoot for a low budget."[3] The initial concept for the film later came about during a writer's retreat, in which the filmmakers had assembled and hosted at Stewart's family home.[9] At the retreat, the filmmakers had envisioned a scene in which a lone warrior carrying a severed head inside a sack, stumbling into a room filled with heads mounted on the walls.[3] With this scene in mind, the filmmakers then developed a forty-page script, which contained very little dialogue,[9] describing it as a medievalhorror film.[3][10] From the outset, both Downey and Stewart knew that the film would be low-budget, and feature a very small cast, which was all factored into the film's script.[3] For inspiration, Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart have cited Jean-Jacques Annaud's Quest for Fire (1981), Robert Eggers' The Witch (2015), as well as The X-Files, and Tales From the Crypt.[10]
Pre-production
Actor Christopher Rygh as the title character. The costume was designed by Swedish costume designer André Bravin and made from leather.
Early in pre-production, the two filmmakers had decided to shoot the film around Stewart's family home in Soutelo Mourisco, a small village in Northern Portugal, due to the remoteness of its location.[3][11][10] The filmmakers had wanted to utilize the location for some time, feeling that its remoteness and scenery "would lend itself very well to a horror movie".[10] For the titular character, the filmmakers wanted the role to look and feel authentic, refusing to cast an American actor in the role as they felt that it would not be appropriate for the period and feared that it would end up 'looking fake'.[3] Norwegian actor Christopher Rygh was later cast as the leading role, in his feature-film debut,[11][3] after filmmakers discovered him while searching a casting website. Downey later recalled, that there was no formal audition for the role, with the filmmakers casting Rygh after having a conversation with him in regards to the role.[3]
Construction of the film's props and various monsters in the film commenced before the script was completed, with the filmmakers experimenting with the designs and techniques to accommodate its low budget. In creating the look and feel of decomposition in the severed heads featured in the film, the production crew reappropriated old Halloween masks by staining them and placing layers of melted plastic over them to create the effect of rotting flesh. Other props for the film were purchased inexpensively by the production crew the day after Halloween, as Downey recalled "we just bought every medieval thing in there we could find. Every plastic sword or shield, skeletons, and skulls, anything that just looked kind of creepy, crawly, medieval, or metal. We bought it all."[9] The title character's armor was created by Swedish costume designer André Bravin, who fashioned it out of leather.[11][9] Downey later described the armor as 'being more Leatherface-esque, rather than a Game of Thrones-style vibe', with faces and skin appearing stitched into the entire outfit. The film's main antagonist, credited as "The Head", was designed Troy Smith, who had previously worked with Downey in both his Thankskilling series and Critters: Bounty Hunter.[10]
Filming
Additional scenes for the film were shot in Mammoth Lakes, California.
Principal photography began in Bragança, Portugal,[3][10][11] while additional scenes were shot in Norway, and Mammoth Lakes, California.[12] With very little dialogue in the film, Downey stated that he had always been drawn to films that centered more on visual storytelling, rather than relying on dialogue to convey the story.[3] To accommodate the film's low budget, the variety of creatures that appear throughout the film are only shown in glimpses or merely implied,[9] the film's low budget also limited the amount of production crew the filmmakers could hire, which, according to Stewart, only consisted of three other people, including himself and Downey.[10] Shooting occasionally proved challenging, as the costumes and props had to be shot in a certain way to "look right on camera", and crew members, including Downey, performing multiple roles during production.[11]
The climactic fight sequence was shot in a water mine,[10][11] after one of Stewart's cousins suggested it as a possible location to film.[10] The scene was devised as a way to enhance the threat of "The Head", by forcing the title character to fight it at less than full strength, as he is unable to use the weapons that he is accustomed to fighting with.[10] Shooting at the location, as Downey stated, proved to be the most difficult, and frustrating portion to shoot,[10][11] with cast and crew members forced to enter the location one at a time. Describing the cave's conditions, Downey noted: "It was really crammed, dark and there were spiders and water up to our ankles and knees. The torch was putting off fumes and there was no ventilation." Downey developed a cold after shooting at the location.[11] Rygh, who had previously starred in the Norwegian short filmUlfberht,[13] was described by Downey as easy to work with, and never complained on set.[11]
The first premiere of The Head Hunter occurred at the 2018 Sitges Film Festival, where it was included in the festival's "Panorama Fantàstic" program (pictured 2009).[22]
The Head Hunter first premiered at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2018,[22] to a sold-out crowd.[15] It was later screened at the Nightmares Film Festival on October 20, 2018.[23][24] While the film was screened at Sitges, and Nightmares Film Festival under the title The Head.[22][23] It was later changed to The Head Hunter in later screenings. According to filmmakers Downey and Stewart, the reason for the change was mainly due to lukewarm reactions under the initial name, with the film's distributor, Vertical Entertainment, suggesting a change in the film's title. After "combing through all kinds of medieval literature", the filmmakers later came up with the film's current title. Downey and Stewart were originally against the name change, but later embraced it as they felt the current title shifted the focus from the antagonist to the main character.[10]
Under the new title, the film was screened at the Insólito Festival de Cine de Terror y Fantasía on February 7, 2019.[25] It would also be screened at the Fantasporto Film Festival later that month on the 24th.[26] It was selected for inclusion into the 54th annual Portland International Film Festival, and was screened in the "PIFF After Dark" section of the program on March 16, 2019.[27][28]
Distribution and limited release
Worldwide distribution rights for the film, under the original title The Head, were purchased by Vertical Entertainment on October 25, 2018, to launch international sales at the American Film Market on the 31st.[29][30] The first trailer debuted on March 14, 2018. It received over 5million views, later becoming the #1 most viewed trailer on iTunes Movie Trailers, briefly surpassing the total views of current blockbusters including Avengers: End Game, Toy Story 4, and John Wick 3.[b]
It received a limited theatrical release in the United States on April 5, 2019.[31] The film premiered in Russia on May 1, 2019, grossing $44,652 in its limited run. On January 7, 2021, it premiered in Mexico with an additional $335,796 gross.[32] It eventually accumulated a worldwide gross of $380,829.[4]
Home media
The Head Hunter was released via Video on Demand,[31]cable, and digital media on April 5, 2019.[10][31] It was later released on DVD by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on May 7, 2019, and grossed a total of $92,365 in domestic video sales.[4] On November 21, 2019, it was announced that Shudder had acquired streaming rights to the film and would begin streaming it worldwide on the platform on December 5.[33]
The Head Hunter received positive reviews from critics on its release. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 17 reviews and an average rating of 7.20/10.[37] The plot was generally well received. Paste Magazine's Kenneth Lowe wrote that the film "eschews most graphic violence and crazy battle scenes to tell a tighter story", and favorably compared its storytelling approach to the literary works of Robert E. Howard in its "hinting at a wider world of ghoulish dangers".[38]Noel Murray of Los Angeles Times described the plot's "stripped down" simplicity as "refreshing".[39]On: Yorkshire Magazine described the premise as "a lean, mean adventure".[34]
The film's cinematography has been highly praised.[34][40] Writing for Screen Rant, Sandy Schaefer said that the film location "help to create the feeling that this story really is unfolding in an ancient setting".[12]Dread Central's Jonathan Barkan described the film as "visually beautiful" in its atmospheric capture of the (mostly) Portugal landscape.[41] Writing for Polygon, Rafael Motamayor favorably compared the cinematography to the fantasy game Skyrim in its "capturing vast emptiness and misty forests".[42] Its seamless blend of music and cinematography was noted by Starburst Magazine's John Townsend, who states that it effectively "deepen[s] the sense of scale and emotion."[40]Joblo's Jake Dee found The Head Hunter's cinematography and imagery effective in its building of a "real and authentic" world.[43] Kat Hughes of The Hollywood News highlighted the cinematography as the film's main strength commenting that it "successfully conjures up otherworldly and Medieval vibes and effortlessly transports the viewer to another plane".[35]
Reviews of Rygh's performance were positive. As Motamayor writes, "Rygh does an excellent job conveying the emptiness[...] and how much grief drives the man’s thirst for revenge.[42] Jonathan Barkan of Dread Central states that Rygh's performance was both "interesting" and "captivating" in its portrayal of a warrior broken by grief.[41] Crow also found Rygh perfectly cast for the role, calling him "a fabulous lead who looks like a man who lived in that time".[34] Janel Spiegel of HorrorNews.net praised Rygh for his ability to encapsulate the different sides of the character through his movements, eyes, and quiet intensity.[44] Writing for the British magazine Little White Lies, Anton Bitel noted that Downey's decision to focus on what he described as "the inner workings of its protagonist's day-to-day existence", he crafted a film "as a close study in psychodrama".[45] Schaefer would note that Rygh was effectively portrayed a fully fleshed out character through minimal dialogue.[12]
Bloody Disgusting's John Squires wrote that, despite the film's low budget, it "looks and feels like a polished Hollywood production".[46] Dee also expressed admiration for the film's production, which achieve a look reminiscent of a film made for several times its actual budget.[43] Townsend commended the film's ability to create a minimalist but "fully textured" world with limited funding, although he believed "many viewers will have more questions than answers" on the film's occasional narrative ambiguity.[40] Alternately, Polygon's Motamayor described the budget as the film's major flaw, noting that its low budget forced most of the action and more detailed fantasy elements off-camera.[42] This criticism was echoed by Hughes who found issue with the lack of action and character details, leaving the audience to watch "a continual stream of a man sitting silently, reflecting on his quest". While Hughes commended the film for its production design and music, she concluded that "it ultimately fails to fully realise its potential".[35]
Accolades and recognition
The Head Hunter has received several awards and nominations in a variety of film festivals.[15] In 2024, the film websites Collider and Screen Rant placed it at No. 7 in their respective lists of "The 10 Best Historical Horror Movies".[47][48] Collider also ranked the film at No. 4 in their "The 10 Darkest Fantasy Movies", commenting that the film "has an atmosphere that no other movie has been able to match".[49] That same year, the media website Looper listed the film in their "The 10 Best Dark Fantasy Movies (That Are Actually Scary)".[50]
^"PIFF42 Schedule"(PDF). Issuu. Portland International Film Festival. February 15, 2019. p. 24. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
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