Hunting Humans

Plot

Set in Maryland, the film follows Aric Blue, a mortgage broker who leads a double life as a narcissistic serial killer, one who prides himself in discerning his victims' patterns and routines, while claiming to not have any traceable ones of his own. One night, Aric breaks into a multiplex to murder a projectionist, who he is shocked to discover is already dead, with a note left on his body that reads "I've Got Your Pattern". Enraged over the prospect of someone being on to him, Aric, in a fit of paranoia, shoots a suspicious dog walker. A few nights later, Aric is beaten unconscious in his home by the actual stalker, who identifies himself as "Dark". After Aric hires a private investigator named Marv to uncover information on Dark, his self-proclaimed rival challenges him to outdo his slaying of three picnickers, which Aric does by knifing four people in a theatre. Afterward, Aric learns from Marv that Dark is watching him through his own P.I., Frank Cooper.

Aric dismisses Marv, and picks up where he left off, intent on digging up everything he can on Dark through Frank. While doing so, Aric realizes that Dark is also spying on him through a co-worker named Barb, who Aric threatens into helping with his plan to get rid of Dark. Later, Aric breaks into Frank's house again, and this time he is confronted by Marv, who is really Dark. The two serial killers try to one-up each other with various trump cards, ending with Dark gunning down Frank (who kept switching sides for monetary reasons) and running off when Aric reveals he has brought along a sniper rifle-wielding workmate named Doug. Aric chases and fights Dark in the woods, with Dark having the upper hand until Aric shoots him with a handgun, one of eighteen he had left in the area in anticipation that his and Dark's battle would take place outside. Brad (who is unaware of Aric's true nature) appears, and is murdered by Aric, who relocates to another city after eliminating the rest of his co-workers, and other loose ends.

Cast

Release

The film has been released multiple times on DVD, it was first released on Jul 22, 2003 by MTI Home Video. It was re-released later that same year by Film 2000. On Jan 1, 2007 the film was re-released on DVD by Trinity. The film was last released on DVD as a part of a double-sided combo pack with three other films which was released by Allegro Corporation on Jun 7, 2011.

Reception

While Bill Paterson of Beyond Hollywood was critical of elements like the dialogue and acting, he admitted that the storyline was innovative and disturbing, and that "production value aside, the film is tightly edited and flows nicely". Horror Talk's Steve Pattee gave Hunting Humans an overall grade of 3½ out of 5, and wrote, "Kangas has entered moviemaking not with a bang, but an explosion. Some of his visuals make me wonder if — given time to develop — he will have a unique style that will make his movies immediately recognizable, like Martin Scorsese's or Michael Mann's. For now, however, he has written a mean, smart, original script with Humans and has done an admirable job directing it as well". Conversely, Evan Wade of Something Awful allotted the film a score of -37 out -50, and described it as "the kind of project that comes about when a bunch of people from the YMCA summer creative writing course decide to get together, overdose on Benadryl, and write a movie". In a review of Kangas's 2004 feature Fear of Clowns, DVD Talk's Scott Weinberg dismissed Hunting Humans as something "you needn't rent anytime soon".