French director Jean Rollin background is full of lesbian vampire tales.  He made a career with low-budget horror films filled with blood, nudity, lesbians and sex.  The Night of the Hunted is probably Rollin’s strangest film, which has no vampires, but is full of sex and nudity. 

The film starts off on an old country road somewhere outside of Paris.  A man named Robert is driving alone during a dark, rainy night.  All of the sudden a woman barely dressed runs out in front of his car.  Robert gets out and walks to the woman.  He asks her name and she says Elisabeth.  Robert begins to ask her questions, but she doesn’t seem to remember anything.  She doesn’t know her age, where she came from or how she got out in the middle of the road.  Robert puts her in his car and drives off.

While inside the car, Robert begins to ask her more questions.  She doesn’t have an answer to anything he says.  Before you know it Elisabeth is screaming and kicking.  She seems to have forgotten how she got inside the car and she’s forgotten whom Robert is.  Elisabeth wants out of the car, but Robert is nice enough to convince her to stay.  Robert then takes Elisabeth back to his house.

Of course back at the house Elisabeth has forgotten everything about Robert.  The two begin talking and they try to get to the bottom of Elisabeth’s problem.  This talking of course leads to a big sex scene in normal Rollin fashion.  This sex scene has to be the longest one in film history outside a porno film.  This scene last at least seven minutes and also contains some of the funniest moments in history.  While having sex Robert tries to be “romantic’ and tell Elisabeth he’s going to give her something she’ll never forget.  Well, he doesn’t come off very romantic but it gives the viewer something to laugh at. 

The next day Robert leaves for work and lets Elisabeth stay home alone.  Just as Robert leaves there’s a knock at the door.  Elisabeth answers and her doctor is at the door with his assistant.  They’ve followed Elisabeth and now they must take her back to the hospital.  Elisabeth refuses to go, but she can’t remember why she should stay.  So, on the way out of the house she once again changes her mind.  She tells the doctor that she isn’t going to leave.  The doctor says she doesn’t have to.  Elisabeth looks around and realizes that she can’t remember where Robert lives.  Since she can’t remember, she decides to go with the doctor.

Back at the hospital we begin to learn what Elisabeth’s problem is.  She along with several other patients is suffering from some rare disease that makes you lose your memory within a matter of minutes.  She meats a woman named Veronic.  Apparently Elisabeth and Veronic know one another from somewhere, but of course neither can remember.  They can’t remember many things, but the do remember what the word escape means.  So, throughout the rest of the movie the two women must find a way to escape before the crazy doctor puts them to their death.  While planning their escape we get to see a man suffering from anxiety go around killing a few people.

The Night of the Hunted is considered to be director Rollin’s worst film and I have to agree.  Besides that first sex scene there really isn’t anything here to enjoy.  The acting is very bad but most of the cast is porn stars so that explains that.  The main problem with the film is that none of the characters or their diseases are interesting.  The viewer knows what’s going on, yet all the characters keep forgetting things and this becomes very boring after the first couple minutes.  Jean Rollin films are an acquired taste, but The Night of the Hunted can’t be enjoyed by anyone.  While watching the film I realized that I suffered from the same disease as Elisabeth.  Every couple of minutes in the film I would forget what I had just saw.

VIDEO---The movie is presented in widescreen (1.66:1), which was the theatrical ratio of the film.  The movie was taken from a couple negatives in a Rollin collection, but the transfer is terrible.  All of the film is faded and there are plenty of scratches on the film.  A lot of the night scenes are filled with grain and sometimes the colors are blended together. 

AUDIO---The audio is in DD Mono and isn’t all that bad.  Sometimes static and hiss can be heard, but for most of the film, the audio is clear.  The movie is in French with English subtitles.

EXTRAS---Extras include a theatrical trailer, which actually looks better than the film itself, but that’s not saying a lot.  You get a photo gallery with about ten photos in it, but that’s not too impressive either.  There are also two pages of liner notes that don’t tell you anything important.  The back of the DVD case says that one of the extras is two deleted sex scenes, but these are not in a deleted scene section.  These two sex scenes where cut out of the original film, so that the film could get an R rating.  These two scenes have simply been put back into the film.

OVERALL---A very bad Rollin film with very bad video quality.  The movie is uncut and widescreen and these are the only plusses to the film.  The extras are small, but nice.  The only reason to see this film is for the sex scene that runs a quarter of the film. 

Director: Jean Rollin

Cast: Brigitte Lahale

         Vincent Gardnere

         Dominique Journet

Year: 1980

DVD by: Redemption

Running time: 93min.

Rated: NR (violence, gore, nudity and sex)

Retail price: $24.95

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

16x9: No

Sound: Dolby Digital Mono

MOVIE---1.5/5

VIDEO---1.5/5

AUDIO---2.5/5

EXTRAS---2/5

OVERALL---1.5/5

Disagree with this review or want to share your feelings?

Then post in the Forum under feedback.