Climate of the Hunter (2021)

"A Peter Greenaway-Style Vampire Movie"

        Well, a bit, anyway. The new feature from Oklahoma-based film-maker Mickey Reece, known as 'the Soderbergh of the Sticks' or so it says here, gets a cinema and digital release from Bulldog Distribution.

Two middle-aged sisters, Alma (Ginger Gilmartin) and Elizabeth (Mary Buss) await the arrival of Wesley (Ben Hall with his Stephen McHattie voice) at their remote cabin hideaway. Once he's there the conversation turns to events of the past over a succession of 1970s-themed meals that look as if they've come straight from Vincent Price's actual cookbook. As the days pass it seems that Wesley may be a vampire. We also learn he has placed his wife in an asylum. But is she still there?

Described as a cross between Harry Kumel's DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS and the films of Jean Rollin, fans of the work of those directors may find themselves scratching their heads at the comparison. With its measured pacing and accent on dinner table conversation between the three leads CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER feels more like a cross between DROWNING BY NUMBERS and a 1970s AIP picture, as if Peter Greenaway had directed COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE. 

It's well shot and acted and obviously not the work of a hack, but certain viewers should be warned that in terms of horror we're very much in IT COMES AT NIGHT territory here in terms of slow pacing and if that's not your kind of thing you may find the 82 minute running time feels rather longer than it actually is. That said Reece obviously has talent and is definitely a director to be watched and I very much suspect his best work in the art house horror genre is yet to come. Anyway, here's the trailer for CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER:

Mickey Reece's CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER is out in cinemas from Bulldog Distribution on Friday 13th August 2021 and on Digital rent and download-to-own on Monday 23rd August 2021