Mikes Film Talk

In “Hunters” this week (“Love and Violence”) it was all about heroin and making babies; the hard way.  Apart from the main storyline, Regan is interrogated about the encounter with the Hunter at the heroin plantation and why the creature did not harm her.  Abby apparently had a lot of contact with her husbands deceased partner on the day he died and the ETU finally capture McCarthy and a female Hunter.

McCarthy does a turn at a club and picks up a heroin addict and a female hunter.  The trio end up in a van outside the venue and the woman ends up having fluid taken from her spine, like the other victims.

Flynn and Regan track McCarthy down and find the female Hunter in a motel bathroom apparently vomiting skin tissue.  The two are taken in and it is learned that the female is pregnant. While Lionel McCarthy undergoes interrogation, the female gives birth.

The act of “hunter-birth” is traumatic, painful and deadly. The female dies, after her her back splits open allowing Regan to pull the newborn from the dying mother.  McCarthy, who has been tortured for information, tells his captors that he needs to touch the Hunter to heal her.

The ETU, who have been using sounds to torture the uncooperative McCarthy, apparently have little qualms about causing extreme pain to focus the questioning. Jackson is appalled and sickened by the means used but his boss clearly has no problem with harming a suspect.

After the baby Hunter is born, Regan seems fascinated by the infant. She really knows very little about her species and asks the doctor if the baby will grow up to look human.

Using equipment that was designed to help  Regan  cope with her increasing senses, Truss ends the session in disgust when Lionel urinates himself because of the pain.  Jackson (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) tells his boss that his team will not continue questioning using torture. 

The mother and baby are dying after the trauma of childbirth and McCarthy asks to be let loose to treat the two.  Jackson agrees only after McCarthy says he will  release Abby and Emme. Lionel gives Flynn an address and he rushes to find his wife and Em whom he believes  was just kidnapped on McCarthy’s orders.

By the time McCarthy is allowed into the room to treat the two Hunters,  Lionel is too late to save the mother. He then asks to touch the baby.  What happens next is shocking  as McCarthy crushes his infant.

Flynn locates the storage facility and in a chest freezer, he finds Abby who looks quite dead.

We learn about Truss’ religion (He is a Mormon.) and he tries to help Regan when she asks whether she has a soul. Jackson tells the Hunter agent that he believes she does.

This episode of “Hunters,” after using the three previous episodes to “big up” McCarthy sees the leader of the terrorists get caught  quite easily. Mainly because of his concern over the pregnant Hunter.  It is also revealed that Lionel is not the “big leader.”

ETU have finally captured their first Hunter and they appear woefully ill prepared to both question and make use of this valuable prisoner.  The team really have no idea of what  the Hunters want and were totally unprepared when Lionel  killed the baby.

Flynn finding a dead Abby in the freezer could be real game changer and her death alter his role in the ETU.

The  special effects, used on  the almost “Alien” childbirth scene was so  evocative of the autopsy scene in the 1981 film “The Thing” that when Regan puts her hands in the gaping cavity  one honestly expects to see them chomped off.

On a sidenote, those spinal injections are horrendous to look at and still look excruciating.

Britne Orford is brilliant as the Hunter ETU agent. Obviously in terms of age, mentally and physically, Regan is a fairly young Hunter and as such is a curious mixture of naivety and strength.  Julian McMahon is killing it as the Hunter terrorist and he is the best thing about the program thus far. 

The plot line of the heroin being connected with the babies and used as  a “tool” to aid the creatures in dealing with looking human is interesting.

“Hunters” is having a hard time hitting its stride. Being highly serious detracts a bit, there should be some humor to break things up.  Regardless of the somber delivery this one could become great if the audience can just hang in there.  McMahon makes a great bad guy, he almost steals the show, and he alone makes the series watchable.

Orford is a splendid mix of emotions as she trudges toward her own reality and Flynn is almost sympathetic.

“Hunters” airs Mondays on SyFy. Stop by and check it out, uber serious it may be but try it, you might like it.