Night Hunter

Directed by David Raymond, Night Hunter follows a grizzled detective (Henry Cavill’s Walter Marshall) as he’s drawn into a case involving several missing girls and a mysterious, mentally-handicapped suspect (Brendan Fletcher’s Simon). Filmmaker Raymond, armed with his own screenplay, admittedly does an effective job of opening Night Hunter with a fair degree of promise, as the picture kicks off with a stirring initial stretch that effectively establishes the central mystery and a seemingly unrelated subplot involving a vigilante (Ben Kingsley’s Michael) and his assistant (Eliana Jones’ Lara). It’s clear, then, that the picture’s slow-but-steady descent into irrelevance is triggered by a convoluted midsection that grows less and less interesting by the minute, as Raymond suffuses the proceedings with a whole host of underwhelming, uninvolving elements and attributes that are exacerbated by an ongoing reliance on less-than-convincing plot twists and character developments. (There’s little doubt, ultimately, that Fletcher’s twitchy, grating performance perpetuates the arms-length vibe to a rather disastrous degree.) By the time the hopelessly anticlimactic third act rolls around, Night Hunter has cemented its place as an ill-advised and thoroughly disappointing thriller that squanders its decent setup and raft of above-average periphery players.

*1/2 out of ****