After finding success in the action genre, writer and director James Nunn returns to horror for his tenth feature, “Hungry,” from Signature Entertainment. Sistine (Madison Davenport) and her best friend Hannah (Olivia Bernstone) are enjoying a girls’ trip in New Orleans when Sistine receives a phone call informing her that she has been laid off from her job. Naturally, the ladies decide to spend the night drinking away their sorrow.
Despite the bad news, they still go on their scheduled alligator tour the next day, led by Captain Rodrigo (Michel Curiel). They meet fellow travelers, including businesswoman Dionne (Tracey Bonner), retiree Tim (Jim Meskimen), Tim’s daughter Sally (Samantha Coughlan), and her son Mikey (River Codack). Everyone on the tour is excited to see gators up close on the riverboat ride. However, as this is a creature feature, we know that something sinister is about to happen. In this case, it’s a killer hippo with a taste for fresh meat.
On paper, “Hungry” might have been pitched as a macabre adaptation of the classic board game where the goal was for players to eat as many marbles as possible with their toy hippopotamus model. Whether it was “Clue”, “Ouija” or “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”, Hollywood adapting classic board games into movies is nothing new.
While “Hungry” has no official connection to “Hungry Hungry HIPPOS “, the imaginative cinephile in me always envisioned a straightforward adaptation of the game as an R-rated anime. The Hippos have names, talk, and are depicted as seeking a wild off-passage to eat humans. One of the hippos experiences a crisis of conscience and refuses to join the tradition, ultimately becoming an ally to our final girl and fighting off the other hippos in a death match.
However, Nunn takes a more traditional creature feature approach. We meet our characters, we quickly understand who’s likely to die, and we are teased with glimpses of the hippo devouring the tourists, leaving behind bloody corpses in the water. The kills do arrive and should generally impress horror fans. Acting-wise, the cast doesn’t have to do much; there is a particularly unearned moment where Sistine delivers a monologue about her failures in life.
However, Nunn understands the type of movie “Hungry” is aiming to be—a throwback to the days of Troma and Roger Corman—and for the most part, it succeeds.
Final Grade: C+
“Hungry” arrives on VOD June 23
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