WarHunt, movie (2022) - Film review by Kadmon

WarHunt, movie (2022) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
Watch the trailer in German
video © OU WarHunt Films

The WarHunt (2022) is a fantasy WW2 military action / thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.

Product: WarHunt, movie (2022)

Original title: WarHunt

Series: -

Setting: historical (WW2) fantasy Earth

Product type: Film, Genre: fantasy WW2 military action / thriller, Features: fantasy, thriller, military action, World War 2, action, magic, witches, Style: ?

Release: 2022.01.21

Watched: very recent (2022.01), first time

Rating: Weak (2- out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Average (2 out of 3 points)

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This is my review of WarHunt, a fantasy WW2 military action / thriller movie from 2022. It's about a team of WW2 soldiers trying to rescue the crew of a plane that crashed behind enemy lines. The WarHunt film is watchable, but I only recommend it to dedicated fans of the genre.

WarHunt, movie (2022)
image © OU WarHunt Films

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Review (spoiler-free) - WarHunt, movie (2022)

I've found this randomly. I've read some discouraging reviews of the movie, but as the first SF&F film from 2022 I've run into, I thought to give this a try, without watching the trailer.

The WarHunt movie is about a team of WW2 soldiers trying to rescue the crew of a plane that crashed behind enemy lines.

The story is okay, although it's not interesting, and it's nothing new. The consistency is a little off due to the insertion of an unnecessary parallel storyline. There are no character arcs. I didn't find major logical problems. The movie is too long, there are many scenes that could be easily cut from it, without affecting the plot.

The cinematography is efficient. The movie is not interesting visually. The action scenes are okay, most of them are easy to follow, except for the final battle. The special effects are okay. Although there are many wide shots, but there are not many cinematic shots that could be used as illustrations of the scenes. Also, there are many close-ups. So I assume this movie was intended to be watched on a wide, but small screen.

The characters are empty shells, only the officers get some semblance of personality. As we don't even get to recognise the soldiers, we don't care about their fates. They are only there to acts as casualties to create at least some kind of tension with their deaths, but it doesn't really work. The actors are fine. I really liked Robert Knepper as the sergeant.

The music (by Tao Liu) is okay, it fits the movie.

WarHunt is a watchable fantasy WW2 military action / thriller, that I think only fans of the genre might enjoy.

My experience

I was not entirely satisfied with WarHunt (2022).

Rating: Weak (2- out of 3 points). WarHunt has a long, boring plot, that's mostly taken from other stories.

Enjoyment: Average (2 out of 3 points). WarHunt has some interesting parts that I liked.

Rewatchability: I'm not sure. I think it's mostly the surprise of the story that makes you feel interested.

Chance of watching it again: No. Now that I know the story, there's no need to watch it again.

Chance of watching a sequel: I'd probably watch it.

WarHunt, movie (2022)
image © OU WarHunt Films

Will you enjoy this?

If you like mystery or thriller movies, you might like WarHunt.

If you like horror or action thriller movies (Predator), you might like the WarHunt movie.

If you like fantasy stories (Andromeda Strain), you might like WarHunt, although the fantasy aspects are just background elements.

If you can get through the first half hour of the movie still interested, the rest will be similar.

If you prefer visuals over story, this movie might be boring.

Watching for plot points

If you are interested in fantasy stories with military action, I think it's worth watching the WarHunt movie for the plot points.

Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?

You'll probably get the same experience, no matter where you watch it.

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WarHunt, movie (2022)
image © OU WarHunt Films

Review with spoilers - WarHunt, movie (2022)

Although I wasn't thrilled by the WarHunt movie, it was watchable.

Mickey Rourke looks awful, like a wax puppet in a wig. It might be fitting his character, but it still breaks my immersion.

Cover

The cover of the movie is okay, it doesn't say much, it doesn't hint at the genre, but it doesn't spoil the movie.

The trailer

The trailer is actually good. Although it spoils some minor parts of the movie, I thinks it gives as enough interesting glimpses into the plot to make me want to watch this movie.

If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the WarHunt film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will make the movie less fun for you.

Promise of the first scene

A plane is hit by something - leaves? debris? -, causing it to fall. There are some important documents on the plane. I assume that the survivors will try to escape with the documents, or a rescue team will be sent to retrieve those documents.

Execution: It was a rescue team, and they decided to destroy the documents as they were too dangerous. I consider this fulfilment of the promise okay.

Plot summary / Synopsis

1945, Germany, 80 miles from Stuttgart: An American plane is flying over Germany, carrying sensitive documents. It gets hit by a flock of ravens, causing it to fall behind enemy lines.

A team of twelve Allied soldiers, lead by a sergeant (Robert Knepper as Sergeant Brewer) is sent to rescue them. An officer (Mickey Rourke as Major Johnson) joins them, and orders them to take an expert (Jackson Rathbone as Walsh), who'll retrieve the documents. They take inflatable boats and go by the river. We see an ominous raven, leaving swirls of darkness around it.

At the military camp, the officer contacts a language expert, who is good in ancient German languages. In a numbers station transmission, at half speed, there's a female voice, saying "tree of life" in German.

The soldiers find executed German soldiers. They suspect they were probably deserters. They are attacked by Germans, and they take one of the Germans captive, who is unable to speak. They also have a casualty, whom they bury.

An ominous shape appears behind them.

The soldiers reach a windmill. They see naked girls bathing inside. The expert carves an X into a tree. As they move forward, they run into the grave they've dug earlier. They realise that their compass doesn't work.

One of the soldiers gets deeper into the woods to relieve himself, when he meets a woman (Anna Paliga as Stria). The woman shows him the crashed plane, then she starts kissing the soldier. After some time, we see the soldier running away, and the woman got shot by him.

The team is able to contact the captain (Josh Burdett as Captain Rice) of the fallen plane, who says that the others are dead. Then we see that an ominous shape appears near the captain.

The soldier who kissed the woman returns, and shows the plane to the rest of the team.

We see an ominous shape becoming a woman, and finding the woman who was shot.

The soldiers get to the plane, the expert retrieves the package. As they couldn't find any bodies, they start looking for survivors.

The soldier who shot the woman, finds some hideous boils on his body.

The team is ambushed, and while fighting the man, they realise it's the captain of the plane. They have to decapitate the captain to kill him. They find it out that his internal organs were removed, and his body was stuffed with black feathers.

At the army camp, the officer asks the language expert to read an ancient book.

The soldier who kissed the girl gets sick, and the others find out about the boils. Their captive tries to run. A soldier catches him, but two witches appear, and kill the soldier, and take his blood.

The other capture the German again, and he tells that witches killed that soldier, who took his blood like they've taken the blood of his soldiers.

The soldier who kissed the girl explains that she's seen her as a witch, that's why he shot her.

The soldiers decide to make a stand instead of just leaving the place. The expert calls the military camp, and they warn him that another enemy squad approaches their position.

The sergeant goes mad, hearing taunting voices. He shoots one of the soldiers, who flees. He runs into witches, who turn him into a board-man, that attacks the team, and gets killed. The soldiers roast and eat him, only the German captive refuses to take a bite. When the spell is broken, and they all realise they've eaten the guy, the witches appear, and kill the captive.

Then one by one, the soldiers get killed, either by the witches or by each other. In the end, one soldier remains, and the expert.

Using a device, they find the windmill again. Inside the windmill, they find a magic book (that the officer is also looking for), and also the Tree of Life in the basement. The soldier who kissed the girl, who now works for the witches, attacks them, and both are taken captive by the witches. When they try to escape, they kill the soldier who serves the witches, but the last regular soldier is also killed.

The officer steps in to save the expert. The expert sets fire to the Tree of Life before they escape. The three witches put the fire out with magic.

They gear up in gas masks, and attack a witch with mustard gas left from WW1, whom they think died. Then they kill the other two. The witch they thought dead attacks them, and while they kill her, the witch removes the gas mask from the officer, killing him. The expert burns the witches, then ignites the whole place.

We see that the German search team arrives, and they find one of the witches, who wore a gas mask.

The setting

It's set it historical fantasy Earth, in 1945. In this world magic exists.

WarHunt, movie (2022)
image © OU WarHunt Films

Witches

They offer eternal life if a man accepts to be their chosen one.

They take the blood of their victims.

They control ravens.

They can teleport? Or disguise themselves with magic.

They are vulnerable to firearms. But it looks like, after a grenade explosion, they can just turn to ravens and fly away.

The witches used a magic book, to drink the blood of warriors to live forever.

The Tree of Life must be fed with warrior's blood. Then, blue flowers blossom on it. Then they harvest this blue flower and feed it to the witch.

The message of the story

I'm not sure there's one. "Don't shoot ugly woman you've slept with, just because they are ugly"?

The structure of the story

The scenes of the WarHunt film are mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline. There is a flashback scene.

There's no single viewpoint character.

It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - introduction, action, resolution. It ends with a shocker, preparing a possible sequel.

Fan-service

I'm not sure if it's intentional fan-service, homage, or copyright infringement, but you get several elements from other, more famous movies:

Predator (1987)

• Soldiers sent to find a fallen vehicle (helicopter).
• An outsider is sent with them.
• Finding bodies, hanging upside down from trees.
• Finding the fallen vehicle empty.
• They capture an enemy.
• The captured enemy tries to run away. The captive get caught by a soldier, but something appears and kills the soldier.
• Preparing a defensive position, with traps and grenades.
• Catching a boar.
• Taking the bodies from the camp.
• The outsider has hidden their true mission. There's a confrontation because of this.
• The antagonist is capturing warriors, and keeps their skulls and weapons as a trophy.
• The witches often give off a Predator-like clicking sound.

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Things I liked

• The teleporting effects were acceptable.

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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?

I haven't seen any other works of the writers (Mauro Borrelli, Reggie Keyohara III, Scott Svatos), or the director (Mauro Borrelli).

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WarHunt, movie (2022)
image © OU WarHunt Films

Analysis of the story - WarHunt, movie (2022)

I mostly liked the story, I didn't find problems that would have prevented me from enjoying WarHunt.

Problematic elements

The title: Why is it "WarHunt"? Are they hunting a war? And why is the Hunt capitalised? What is a WarHunt anyway?

Switching roles: During the first fight scene, the machine gunner, instead of providing cover, drops his weapon, to pull a knife and assault the Germans directly.

Misleading shots: There are some scenes when they try to hide things from the audience, by using camera angles or obstacles. The characters are surprised, even though their view is not limited by the camera angles.

Introducing the sergeant: It took 45 minutes in the movie to finally call the sergeant by his name. Although we've heard the name before, it was an indirect mention.

The final battle: It's not easy to follow the events of the final battle with the witches. This was probably done intentionally, so we couldn't take account of the missing Stria, so she could show up at the end, but I'm almost sure this could have been done better.

Unanswered questions

• Why did the witch showed the soldier the crashed plane? The witches intended to take soldiers' blood. Why help them?
• Why did the major decide to go out to the windmill, totally alone?
• What happened to Walsh in the end?

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Possibilities of improvement

• Cut the scene when the major arrives at the camp.
• Cut the scene where it takes Walsh to show the casualty to the rest of the team. The sergeant should be able to tell where his men are.
• Cut the scene when the major listens to music, and cut to the part when he asks the language expert to read the book.
• Cut the scene when the major and the soldiers are just listening to beeps of the radio.
• Probably cut the scene when the major leaves the camp. Also, the climbing scene. Beyond taking up time, it spoils the surprise of when the major appears at the windmill.

How it could have been better?

Getting rid of the plotline with the major would enhance the story. Or, strengthening it, making it another essential part of the movie.

Making the references to Predator (1987) less obvious or less numerous would probably add to the movie. Every time I realise a parallel, it takes me out of immersion.

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Behind the scenes

Thoughts about the reviews of others

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WarHunt, movie (2022)
image © OU WarHunt Films

Uses for the film - WarHunt, movie (2022)

Plot

• A plane with important documents crash lands in enemy territory. A team is sent to retrieve the documents.
• Witches attack the team that crosses their land.
• As a group goes through an area, one of the kills a local, and the locals turn on the group, wishing to kill them.

Scenes

• When witches capture and take the blood of soldiers, it could be used to show witches sacrificing people.
• When the boar attacks the soldiers, and they eat it, it could be used to show characters doing something disgusting due to magic.

Designs

Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas

• The team is asked to rescue a team that was lost behind enemy lines.
• The team wanders into a territory where evil creatures live, who want to use their blood (or other body fluids).

Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas

Capture the fugitives (solo game): One side tries to escape (they are deserters, escaped prisoners, or captives). The pursuers have to catch the escaping side, while both sides are attacked by a hunting team. They player sets up the playing area. Deploys the units of escaping side on one edge of the playing area. Then randomly deploys hunters anywhere on the playing area. The escaping models don't have weapons (or just light weapons), and they try to move towards the opposing edge with every action, trying to evade the hunters. The hunters can have any kind of equipment or weapons, but they are very few in numbers. The hunters attack the nearest non-hunter model, move towards the nearest model if they are unable to attack. If a hunter has no line of sight to a non-hunter model, roll a d6: on 1-4: they move, 1: north, 2: east, 3: south, 4: west, on 5-6: they stay in place. The models killed by the hunters are considered dead, you don't have to roll for survival at the end of the game. At the beginning of the second turn, the player deploys the pursuing team on the same edge the escaping units entered. The pursuing player can capture an escaping model by winning a turn of close combat against them. Then, a Captured token is put on the captured model. Any unit can remove the captured token by spending an action to free a captive. First, the escaping models act, then the pursuing models act, then finally the hunters act. The pursuing player wins if they capture or kill more than half of the escaping units, while more than half of their own units are alive.

Uncertain start (harder for the pursuer): At the beginning of the second turn, roll a d6. On a roll of 1, the pursuing units enter. Otherwise, you can only try at the beginning of the next turn.

Getting closer (easier for the pursuer): The player gets a bonus on the roll with every try. On the second turn, it's 1, then on the third turn, it's 1-2, on the fourth it's 1-3, and so on.

Hunter player (additional player): The hunter models are played by an additional player. First, the escaping models act, then the pursuer player and the hunter player play their turn normally. If this is played in a three player game, every player plays their turns normally. The hunter player wins, if they kill more than half of both the pursuer and the escaping side.

Teleporting hunters (easier for the hunters): The hunters are able to teleport with an action to a place that is in their line of sight.

Invisible hunters (easier for the hunters): For each real hunter model, the player can deploy two decoy models. The real models and the decoys should have a difference the player can tell. During their action, the hunter player can move every model, but only the real hunters can attack other models.

Escaping player (additional player): The escaping models are played by an additional player. The escaping player and the pursuing player play their turns normally, then the hunter models act. If this is played in a three player game, every player plays their turns normally. The escaping player wins if more than half of their models leave the playing area on the opposing edge.

Destroy the place: The soldiers have to assault an enemy fortress, and set charges to blow it up. Once the explosions start, parts of the building collapse or start burning, making getting out of there harder.

Teleporting enemies: One side has regular soldiers, who want to cross from one edge of the playing area to the opposing edge. The other side are very few in numbers, but they can teleport as an action. They intend to stop the soldiers from crossing their area. The soldiers win if more than half of their units exit through the opposing edge. The teleporters win if they kill more than half of the soldiers.

Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)

WW2 soldiers: Human-sized male human soldiers in WW2 uniform, carrying firearms.

Witches: Human-sized female humans in dresses. Sometimes with swords or crossbows.

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Similar stories - WarHunt, movie (2022)

Novels

F. Paul Wilson: The Keep (1981): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter something more than human (a demon / vampire).

Graphic novels

The Keep (IDW Publishing, 2006): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter something more than human (a demon / vampire). Based on the The Keep novel.

Movies

Blood Vessel (2019): In a WW2 setting, the soldiers encounter something horrible.

Død snø / Dead Snow (2009): In a contemporary setting, a group of friends are attacked by something more than human (Nazi zombies).

Frankenstein's Army (2013): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent to investigate a distress call. They encounter something more than human (Nazi zombies).

Ghost of War (2020): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers encounter something strange.

Outpost (2008): In a contemporary setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter something more than human (Nazi zombies).

Overlord (2018): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter something more than human (Nazi zombies).

The Predator (1987): In a contemporary setting, a team of soldiers is sent behind enemy lines on a mission to find a crashed vehicle (helicopter). They engage with enemy forces, but the real adversary is a something more than human (an alien).

The Bunker (2001): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter difficulties, leading to their demise.

The Devil's Rock (2011): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter something more than human (demons).

The Keep (1983): In a WW2 setting, a team of soldiers is sent on a mission. They encounter something more than human (a demon / vampire). Based on the The Keep novel.

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Frequently asked questions - WarHunt, movie (2022)

Is the WarHunt film based on a book or comics?

No, WarHunt is not based on either books or comics.

Is the WarHunt film a remake or reboot?

No, the WarHunt film is neither a remake nor a reboot. It just bears a very strong resemblance of Predator (1987), without crediting it.

Is there a post credit scene in WarHunt? Does WarHunt have end credit scenes?

No, there's no post credit scene in WarHunt.

Where can I see WarHunt? What is WarHunt playing on? What streaming service is WarHunt on? Where can I watch WarHunt online? Is WarHunt available on Netflix? Is WarHunt on Amazon?

As of 2022.01.26, WarHunt is available Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video (in 4K UHD), Apple TV, Microsoft Movies, Vudu.

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Resources - WarHunt, movie (2022)

Official

WarHunt: Official website.

Forma Pro Films: WarHunt: Official article.

Information

IMDB: WarHunt (2022): Database article.

WikiPedia: Warhunt: Database article.

Letterboxd: WarHunt 2022: Database article.

Rotten Tomatoes: WarHunt 2022: Database article.

Creation

: Concept art article.¤

Reviews with no spoilers - WarHunt film (2022)

: Review video about the WarHunt film with no spoilers.¤

minor spoilers
https://www.voicesfromthebalcony.com/2022/01/21/warhunt-2022-review/

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/warhunt-mickey-rourke-trailer

https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/warhunt-review-mickey-rourke-1235156898/

Reviews with spoilers - WarHunt film (2022)

: Review article of the WarHunt movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤

Analysis - WarHunt movie (2022)

: Analysis video, explaining the finale of WarHunt.¤

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Buying the product - WarHunt, movie (2022)

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Have you seen the WarHunt film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!