It Hunts is fever dream, ghost story, and tragedy all in one
From Director Gabriel Black comes a Lynchian nightmare that follows a depressed nightshift worker who suddenly becomes plagued by visions of the dead. The film’s psychedelic visuals draw the watcher in, but we stay for the twisty storyline where no one can be quite sure what’s real.
Casey (Izzy Martinez) works nights answering phones and spends his days increasingly dissociated from his life, including girlfriend Alex (Katlin Svadbik). When his dreams of flaming tires, blank-eyed women, murders, and suicides bleed into waking life, he agrees to a course of anti-psychotics – but the ghosts don’t disappear. Even the electronic assistants in the house speak with a sinister tone, reciting Alex’s nursing school notes on heart attacks over and over.
As he wanders around his faceless south Florida town, desperately trying to hang onto his sanity, he’s beset with ads for Xirtamine, a drug that promises “escape from your troubles.” His psychiatrist recommends he not “go down the rabbit hole” of the hallucinations, yet he becomes increasingly convinced they have something to tell him. Delving into his past brings more questions than answers: why can Casey do calculus, and where are two years of his life after leaving foster care? With Alex’s help, Casey finds the answers are more terrifying than he bargained for. The eerie ending leaves us with even more questions – that we’re not sure we want to be asking.
Black describes the film as “a story that merges the gritty reality of nightcrawling with an inescapable, atmospheric horror.” In 98 minutes, he delivers the vibe, along with a story about life, death, and memory. There are some echoes of 2021’s Last Night in Soho, though the setting is vastly different. The story uses tropes to its advantage (someone is dead, but not saying who!) giving us a classic film that we’ll still be spooked by.
So, who’s it for? Modern ghost story lovers (you won’t find any Victorian children or murdered queens), Lynch fans, horror aficionados who like a throughline of love amidst their blood and guts (think Mike Flanagan’s projects or Chuck Wendig novels), and indie film enthusiasts.
And, when you finish, if you’re interested in more from Rain of Fire Productions check out their catalog which includes Hot Date (2013), Kitty Kills (2017), and Supercool (2020). Indie Rights has a large collection of various genres; the horror section includes As the Village Sleeps, Mary, Clowns in the Woods, and many more.
It Hunts is streaming now on Amazon Prime.
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