Hunt Her, Kill Her may look like a regular home-invasion type of plot with a light twist to spice things up– I honestly don’t know if there’s such a subgenre known as “work invasion.” After considering the risks and gains of production, the film has the right stuff to give it a kick and stay afloat.

Karen (Natalie Terrazzino) arrives for her first day of work as a janitor in a factory. Her night shift might not have been her first choice, but she has been left with no choice after facing a difficult divorce that has forced her to find work to support her young daughter. While the neighbor takes care of the little girl, Karen receives a tour of the facilities to find out about her activities and some uncomfortable information, such as knowing that recently vandals have broken into factories at night in the surrounding area. Night falls, and the rest of the employees retire to rest, leaving Karen alone to continue with the cleaning routine. Everything seems to be a boring night until a group of masked men has forced their way in, but their intentions go beyond stealing the company’s assets.

For some viewers it may seem unfortunate to see how the plot barely touches the new elements in its favor to give the main character greater power, and thus provide surprises that can leave the audience with their mouths open. There’s a lot of missed opportunity to play around with the misfortune of mechanical and electrical equipment with rotating or tearing parts. There’s eevena scene where a forklift comes to action, but it’s only used as a vehicle to transition the story.

The tools Hunt Her, Kill Her had at hand may not have been considered at first instance until the ideal setting for filming was found, production probably wasn’t authorized to make use of everything available on location, or perhaps it was too risky to expose the cast to commit a rampant series of violent acts without harming their physical integrity– after all, filming in a factory can’t be that easy if OSHA is watching.

Having the opportunity to develop a story in a manufacturing environment opens the door to a million ways to eliminate the characters with every possible gory end. Even when this isn’t the case for a film like Hunt Her, Kill Her, it still delivers goods with some scraps that may be forgiven with the amount of chase scenes and survivalist skills given to a main character that won’t stop even when her cause seems lost.

7 OUT OF 10 HAMMERS