The Last Buck Hunt (2014): Bucking Expectations

Led by an incompetent celebrity hunter, the crew of an outdoors television show goes deep into the woods in search of a legendary killer buck. What their search leads them to, however, may be more than any one of them had ever bargained for.

You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting an outdoors television show. Whether it be fishing, buck hunting or some form of survival, cable television is filled to the brim with shows dedicated to the outdoors. Heck, there are even a few television networks that are solely dedicated to such programing, and I am confident that they pull in a pretty strong viewership, too. Where we have seen a number of films dedicated to spoofing reality TV, mostly in the form of game/survival shows, The Last Buck Hunt has the distinct pleasure of being the only (that I am aware of) film that parodies a hunting show.

The television program in question, "Who gives a Buck?", is an extremely popular deer hunting show hosted by the great Kenny Wayne (Zach Gold). Because you can’t always believe what you see on TV, Kenny’s reputation as a great outdoorsman is not nearly what it appears to be on television. In fact, Kenny is unfathomably inept and constantly has to rely on his father – who is a legitimate, award-winning and well-respected outdoorsman – to bail him out of embarrassing situations. Worse yet, Kenny’s lack of ability as a hunter is overshadowed by his incredible arrogance, which likely stems from his deep down knowledge that he is completely useless.

Kenny is followed by a small television crew deep into the woods, where they are shooting a special episode focused on Kenny searching for, and hopefully killing, a dangerous mythological buck. The crew consists of a cameraman named Steve (Cathan Bordyn), a sound girl named Alex (Briana Chicha) and a tracking expert named Remmy (Scott C. Brown), which is, of course, short for Remington. Both Steve and Alex are well aware of what a maladroit Kenny is, but the gig pays well enough to deal with his inability to function as a competent human being. However, when their outdoor adventure takes a deadly turn, the crew must decide what is most important to them: their well-being or cementing their fame by capturing the infamous buck.

Directed by Becky and Nicholas Sayers, The Last Buck Hunt is a follow up to their 2010 micro-budget horror film, Break, which I enjoyed back when I reviewed it. In comparison to Break, what’s immediately notable about The Last Buck Hunt is simply how much Becky and Nick Sayers have grown as filmmakers after only one film. I would attribute a larger budget to having a slight impact on this improvement, but the real growth clearly comes from the filmmakers themselves. Everything from the cinematography, editing, sound, script, and dialogue is impressive, and undoubtedly light years away from what was done only three or four years ago with Break.

Driven by solid performances from the small but talented cast, The Last Buck Hunt is best described as a horror-comedy, but it’s the humor that best defines the film, and undeniably the biggest reason why it works so well. The jokes are funny, there are some good sight gags strewn throughout and the script, which was penned by Becky Sayers, is quite witty. Rarely, if ever, does a joke fall flat, which is more than can be said about 90% of theatrically released comedies.

As far as the horror elements go, you won't find much in terms of “terror” in The Last Buck Hunt until the final act. Even then, however, it's the humor and complete insanity of the situation that drives the finale, not horror, and that is certainly not a mark against the film in any way whatsoever. The Sayers stick with a fairly consistent tone from the film’s start and right up until its final moments, and consistency is the name of the game with The Last Buck Hunt, as from top to bottom it’s a thoroughly entertaining and well-crafted film. 

There is no release date set as of this writing, so in the meantime, you can keep tabs on The Last Buck Hunt by heading over to the website at: The Last Buck Hunt

Help Support The Last Buck Hunt!

Following their 2010 independent horror flick Break (which I reviewed and enjoyed), filmmakers Nick and Becky "B-Movie" Sayers are looking to make their triumphant return to micro-budget cinema with their newest project, The Last Buck Hunt. In an attempt to make their new film as good as they possibly can, the Sayers have put together a Kickstarter campaign in the hopes that they can raise $5,000 towards their budget for The Last Buck Hunt.

Now, because they are true blue film fans who have a real passion for creating cinema, the Sayers plan on making The Last Buck Hunt regardless of whether or not they actually raise the funds to help finance the film. However, it doesn't hurt to ask, and as someone who truly enjoyed what they were able to do with absolutely nothing when they made Break, I feel confident in pimping out their project to all of you in the hopes you will show them some support. 

Anyway, you probably would like to know what the film is all about, so here is a hysterical promotional video that Nick and Becky put together:

If that promo video didn't sell you then I don't know what will! I added The Last Buck Hunt's Kickstarter widget to my sidebar, and as you can see, they are already 70% funded with 19 days left to go, so let's all please come together as supporters of true independent cinema and get them over the hump and into plus territory!

Break: Your Yourself, Fool!

It is nearly impossible to tell what you're going to get with any micro-budgeted horror film. I have always been a supporter and fan of independent movies in general, especially minimal ones where there are essentially nothing but odds stacked against the filmmakers. Most of the time if someone is making a movie for, say, two thousand dollars, they're making some schlepy zombie film, blowing their load on still bad special effects, essentially making a film for themselves and buddies to laugh at. There was a time when I enjoyed that but not so much nowadays, as it does get a little old. When a fellow blogger, B-Movie Becky of The Horror Effect, posted that she had been working on a horror film with her husband, I jumped at the chance to take a look at the movie and give it a review. But as I said, it was impossible to know what I was getting into beforehand.

Break was made for only two thousand bucks and shot over two weeks time with a lengthy editing process that was wedged in between work and school for co-creators Becky and Nick Sayers. The story starts out simple enough, focusing on a group of kinda-sorta teens heading out to some random secluded house for a bit of the usual debauchery. After a whole lot of wild partying, things start to go down a very strange road for the friends as everything feels a little off about the location and each of the characters start to suffer from violent visions that appear all too real as they are happening. These visions, as well as the environment, have an adverse effect on the group, and soon their friendships are turned into mistrust, and arguments form into something much worse than the usually friendly spat.

While this is all going on, there is a side story involving a young man that has taken a girl hostage and is keeping her tied up in his apartment. The connection to the other set of characters is that the victim is actually dating one of the guys in the group, but besides that, their connection to the story is ambiguous, at first. There is, however, a tie to the story as a whole that treads into spoiler territory, but I will say that in the big scheme of things, there is a lot more going on for all the characters in Break than any one of them could imagine, and their connection serves a major role in how things are to unfold in the conclusion.

How Break starts out and ends as a story, is how it starts and ends as a film in many ways. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest, and how could I with such a meekly budgeted movie. Things jump off in such a way that did not surprise me story wise. Friends hanging out, getting blasted and, even before anything happens, you know that eventually something bad is going to happen to the group. You know…like a masked maniac hacking them to pieces or a two-zombie zombie attack of some sort. With that came a movie that was technically rough around the edges early on, which is to be expected, but as the film moved forward, the technical aspects began to become more competent and a sense of individual style would form. This would also be the case with the story line, which went in a direction that is interesting, bold and quite surprising for a film of such low production cost.

Now, I won't say that Break is without its issues, because it isn't, but these are mostly the types of issues that are due to money and inexperience. Overall, the acting isn't awful for this type of film, but it is obvious that most of the actors are far from professional. With that comes the dialogue, which is standard and nothing too original, and money doesn't necessarily buy good dialogue, but on the flip side, it's not like Johnny Depp was delivering the lines either. Still, a few lines were all too familiar and felt somewhat standard in a way. There are also some scenes with sound issues and messy editing more towards the film's front half, but that seemed to be less of a problem as the movie went along.     

One thing I do when watching a no-budget horror film, is I like to look for what was done right. Was there any sort of talent shown or a hint of competency from the filmmakers? Surprisingly, there was, and while it's nothing ground breaking, Break has, as I alluded to earlier, a lot style for such a small movie, and the style is handled quite well. It's virtually impossible to hide incompetence in a movie with a budget this low, and most of the editing, the camera movement and the angles used came together cohesively and felt far from completely amateurish. I wouldn't go as far as to say that the style is nothing I have never seen before, with what appears to be influences from Rob Zombie and a splash of Argento with the use of multicolored lighting gels (which isn't a bad thing, mind you), but it was certainly unexpected and really surprised me.

What I took from Break is the film could definitely be better if there were more time and money, and that's obviously not the case with ultra-indie horror cinema. My complaints are minimal, but I see a movie that does a whole lot for what the filmmakers were granted, and I saw a sense of growth from where the film started, to where it finished. Growth is clearly an important thing when creating anything artistic, and now moving forward, the Sayers have something under their belt that works as a true learning experience and is something that can only lead to stronger movies down the road. But for right now, Break is solid first feature and certainly worth a look for anyone that enjoys low-budget independent horror.  

*If you want to learn more about Break, check out the official blog for all news, production history and anything else you may be curious about*