Sometimes, the scariest movie is not the horror/slasher/fright fest with all the screaming, gore and blood. No, it is the psychological thrillers that pick at the human psyche to reveal all the rot below the surface. When the boundaries between real and fake are blurred, when no one can be trusted and you have no one to turn to, that is where the cold, spine-chilling fear sets in. It is a real fear, one grounded in reality, one that have lived before.
Perhaps that is what makes After the Hunt such a compelling movie with its 2h30 hour of “what happened”!
Behind the ivy-covered walls of the renowned Yale University lies a terrible secret, an event that festers, and as it grows sends ripples down the otherwise quiet and quintessentially academic philosophy department. The purpose of this movie is unclear: is its goal to question the status quo of a male dominated field? Is it to recount some of the stories of women that often go unheard in the vaulted ceilings of a man-made world of learning? Or is director Guadagino trying to test our own morality, or claimed morality and presumed progressive stances, while making us constantly question and doubt the characters, even the vulnerable ones?
Without divulging too much of the plot, because the secrecy and mystery are integral pieces to the story, we, as the audience, are invited to follow philosophy professor Alma Olsson through a typical day. The constant clanking of the clock alerts viewers that her interactions with Henrik Gibson are a totally normal part of her daily routine and that she is a respected professor of calibre and importance. However, on the fateful night of a party hosted by the Olsson’s, the meticulous, almost sterile world that Olsson built begins to crumble down.
No day after the party is the same. When graduate student Maggie Price seeks comfort in her mentor’s arms as a fellow academic woman, she is shocked by the cold and unfeeling tone with which Alma rebukes her. Thus, the wrath of a scorned woman, and a victim, begins to reign terror over Yale, shaking the very marble pillars of ethics long debated in seminars that hold the institution together. We see Alma descend into questioning everything. She expresses signs of anger, mixed with pain and a hint of empathy, as she battles her own feelings in the matter and her past which seems undeniably relevant to the present.
The dialogues are quippy, complex and brittle, delivered with harsh impunity. Julia Roberts as Olsson has this uncanny ability to play an unfeeling, emotionally removed character that you partly hate, partly want to like because of her aura of grandeur that others need to associate with to feel something. Garfield plays his role as assistant and charismatic professor brilliantly, which makes the plot all the more intriguing. As for newcomer Ayo Edebiri playing graduate student Maggie, it is as if we were watching a regular person go through college, not an actress reading some lines. The regular Guadagino star Michael Stuhlberg is able, even as a side character, to make us feel pity and kindness towards him and his wife through his sincere and sheepish smiles. This star-studded cast was given a delightfully intriguing and complex script, but it is their talent that made the story all the more believable.
To best appreciate After the Hunt, you should approach it with philosopher John Locke’s “tabula rasa”, a blank state of mind, expecting nothing but Guadagino’s artistic flair and an air of secrecy. All the intrigue occurs in the confines of the cold academic aesthetic that invites you into their elite and selective club for but a few hours. The escape is easy, the story less so, and razor-sharp focus is required. This is here a simple task as the plot is truly riveting and the twists as dramatic as they are unexpected. My personal qualm and that of another critique concerns the ending: was the the time jump in the epilogue really necessary, and did it add anything to the story or to understanding the complex characters? I’ll let you be the judge of that after watching After the Hunt.
Do not miss After the Hunt which comes out in theatres October 16.
