Beaks here...
If you bought an Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, most likely your console came with two games: GYROMITE and DUCK HUNT. The latter required synchronization with a robot, and wasn't much fun; the former, however, simply asked players to point their "NES Zapper" at the screen and blast waterfowl for hours on end. This was fun - save for the hunting dog that'd pop up and snicker at you every time you missed your target. That was rage inducing.
Twenty-five years later, director Sam Balcomb and producer Joe Lynch have channeled this fury into a short called "The Hunt". It's part of Lynch's Epictober Film Festival for G4 Films, a series of shorts that infuse well-known video games with more disturbing, if not outright horrific elements. You'll get to see all three movies on G4tv.com next week (10/24, 10/25, 10/26), but for a taste of what's in store, check out the trailer for "The Hunt" right here!
According to Balcomb, the filmic inspiration for "The Hunt" was a combination of Steven Spielberg and Stephen King...
Joe Lynch approached me a couple months ago and asked if I'd like to shoot a horror-videogame mashup. The idea was to take very innocent games and spin them as horror concepts, the more bizarre the better. We brainstormed some pretty fucked up ideas, and settled on tackling Duck Hunt by way of Jaws, or Cujo. Everybody from my generation absolutely hated the asshole dog from the game, which laughed at you when you failed. And you couldn't kill it! So, you know, why not turn it into a murderous, flesh-hungry beast?
Pretty much everything was done in-camera. Aunt Dolly's Garage, who worked on the Hatchet films and Joe's Chillerama, did our gore and creature fx. Our poor actors got sprayed with blood and viscera while facing down a giant hunting dog, and managed to keep a straight face. Everything about the shoot was ridiculous in the best way possible.
"The Hunt" will air October 24th on G4tv.com. It will be followed by "Kart Driver" on the 25th and "The Birds of Anger" on the 26th. Here's hoping this is an annual tradition, and that some maniac will transform URBAN CHAMPION into the erotic thriller it's always wanted to be.
