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Are there people outside of kiss-asses that appreciate the company weekends, which they organize for us to develop and evaluate our leadership and managerial skills under duress? To tell you the truth, I have not had one such training, but I can hardly fathom how tough and dull they are. But then again, I am not a big fan of office get-togethers either. I am not skilled at faking a grin to convey appreciation for working in that specific organization. If attendance is not compulsory, the odds are I will not be showing up. So one can only guess how the prospective employees of Takahashi Logistics Corporation feel like when they apply for an account weekend, where apart from ticks, snakes, other people and some undisclosed local hunting traps, ganging up on them is an option. The group must suffer over a 90% level of sky high boredom.
Headhunter: Assessment weekend is a mainstream motion picture parody and quite honestly, better than expected. With all the slasher accessories ready — young adults, remote sets, a plot that is basically non-existent, a killer, and a lot of blood -, the only thing left to do to get the film to a mediocre rating is not bore the audience. And it’s not boring, that much is unquestionable.
Headhunter is very peculiar in how it proceeds to its killings. In this case, the first murder occurs after 34 minutes but the victim portrayed early on as one of those so-called jerks, therefore, it does not matter. At that stage, you are already aware of who ends up surviving the onslaught, which is true as well. However, because the film is so scaled down and so amateur, it allows for the characters to still have strifes to win over and dynamically unfold.
While it is true that there is an over-confident jerk, a shy girl, and a nerdy boy, these characters are not your run of the mill idiots. The film gets credit for that. Missing are the: ghetto comic, the stoner, the racist white guy, the bitchy girl, the gay guy, the black girl, the sassy one, the black funny guy, girls that suddenly find themselves as lesbians. Most of the time in this type of story that has a multitude of people, 99% of the characters lack depth. But here, the cast consists of everyday people and each of them does justice to his part. Some like Shannon Lower as Sarah do a much better job than rest but still overall no one dragged the movie down.
It’s clear that the filmmakers wanted to achieve a lot more than the budget would allow. However, regardless of the restriction, the outcome is above satisfactory. The first instance that comes to mind is the arrow ‘in the neck’ scene. Although you cannot see the arrow penetrating the jugular of the victim, you can vividly imagine it because the squirting blood and damaged skin are so realistic.
This serves as a good example for some of the strengths within the film, but it does not serve as the greatest example on what works: the marginally careless writing. But, for most cases, Headhunter does not seem to overachieve and adheres to the formulaic stalk and slash rout. However, when it strays away from this ‘one size fits all’ approach, it becomes highly debatable. For example, the killer is part of the group and once he cloaks himself fully, he goes through a wardrobe change that appears out of thin air. He now dresses like a ‘Lord of the Flies’ and begins a murder spree. Oh my God. What? I might be able to swallow the bow and arrow, he might have lifted it off a nearby camp in those secluded woods. Who knows? But, for him to go from a few screws to completely insane in 10 minutes is astonishingly hard to believe. The killer’s identity is known and, here, the reveals are more shocking than they tend to be set up from the start. While one can expect from the beginning that this dude had a lot of pent up anger.
The character’s crushing self-esteem and Self Worth issues are his primary motivators and I find it very jarring that the character transitions from being calm to the peak of insanity in the blink of an eye.
On top of this, Headhunter has one of the more absurd endings I have ever come across. The signaled Messel’s are Trying Way Too Hard Ending is present, despite being undeveloped enough to transform into the Haute Tension ‘fuck this ending’ ending, and therefore makes no sense. The scooping of the last two minutes is even more absurd, and truly alters everything said before it. It does not help that the final encounter between the girl and the killer was so devoid of any suspense that it left the audience in heated bewilderment, leading them to believe they lost a chunk of crucial action.
The film brings nothing new to the genre, and it doesn’t break any new ground. Thus, it will probably not be remembered well over time, with the only exception being the ending, for worse or for better. That said, even with the movie’s flaws, I was still entertained because the movie is a fine example of what a talented director like Sebastian Panneck can do with a rather dull script and a low budget. The kills are entertaining, the acting believable, and it moves solidly from point A to B. As an added bonus for me, and perhaps you too now that I mention it two of the actors immediately made me think of Harry Potter and Ron Weasly, forcing me to picture the rest of the Headhunter cast as recent miserable graduates of Hogwarts. Once I let that settle in my mind, it made Headhunter a more intriguing movie, and perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it more than I should have. I recommend a rent.
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