The Head Hunter, originally titled The Head, is a 2018 American independent fantasy horror film directed, written, produced and edited by Jordan Downey. It stars Norwegian actor Christopher Rygh, Cora Kaufman, and Aisha Ricketts. The film centers on the title character, who works as a bounty hunter for a local kingdom, all the while he awaits the eventual return of the creature that murdered his daughter.
Influenced by Quest for Fire, The Witch, The X-Files, and Tales From the Crypt, The Head Hunter was developed by Downey and Kevin Stewart. The filming location was decided long before the story was developed. The concept was developed at a writer's retreat, in which the filmmakers had assembled and hosted at Stewart's family home in Soutelo Mourisco, a small village in Northern Portugal. Rygh, in his feature-film debut, was cast in the leading role after the filmmakers discovered him on a casting website. Principal photography began in Bragança, Portugal, while additional scenes were shot in Norway, and California.
The Head Hunter premiered at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2018, as a part of the "Panorama Fantàstic" section. While the film was screened under the title The Head at Sitges and Nightmares Film Festival, but was later changed to The Head Hunter due to lukewarm reactions. The film received several awards and nominations at various film festivals and received positive reviews from critics upon its release, with many praising the film's atmosphere, cinematography, and Rygh's performance, although its low budget prompted some criticism.
Plot In the Dark Ages, a fierce hunter known as "The Father" lives in a remote cabin, with his only company being his horse Jakke. He earns his living as a bounty hunter, hunting down beasts that terrorize a nearby kingdom.
Each new bounty is announced by the blow of a horn, and information on the target is posted outside the castle walls. After killing them, he collects their heads, which he stakes to the cabin wall. Besides hunting, most of his time is spent repairing his armor, setting traps for animals, visiting his daughter's grave, and using the blood and organs of beasts to create a healing elixir to heal his wounds.
During the latest hunt, Jakke is killed. After he buries Jakke and visits his daughter's grave, another bounty is posted. The father is shocked to learn that the bounty is for the creature responsible for his daughter's death. He travels far north to an island and finds the monster in a cave, where he decapitates it and returns home with its head.
In his cabin, a jar of the elixir is knocked over and spills over the creature's head, bringing it back to life. The revived head drags itself into the woods to search for a new body. Later, the father discovers what has transpired and prepares to hunt down the creature. When nightfall arrives, he begins a game of wits against the creature. To his horror, the creature unearths his daughter's grave and attaches its head to her corpse. He pursues the creature to a nearby cave and is attacked. After a lengthy battle, the father tears off the head from his daughter's corpse and stabs it repeatedly.
The next morning, he reburies his daughter and returns home. After cleaning up, he leaves the cabin to begin repairs on his armor. While doing so, he suddenly cries out before going silent. Shortly after, what appears to be the father returns to the cabin with a severed head. After the head is pinned onto the wall, it is revealed to be the father's. The creature, its head now attached to the hunter's body, leaves with the elixir.
Cast Christopher Rygh as Father (The Head Hunter), a lone Viking warrior, and bounty hunter tasked with hunting down monsters for the local kingdom Cora Kaufman as Daughter, Father's child, who was brutally murdered by a mysterious and deadly creature Aisha Ricketts as The Head (voice), a deadly creature responsible for the brutal murder of the Head Hunter's child
Production Concept and development
The Head Hunter was produced and directed by Jordan Downey, who also co-wrote the script with Kevin Stewart. Downey had previously directed several short films, including the 2014 short Critters: Bounty Hunter, and the 2008 comedy-horror film ThanksKilling. After the completion of several short films, including Thankskilling 2, Downey and his frequent collaborator Stewart began development of their next project.
The concept for The Head Hunter was not immediately forthcoming, as Downey states, "We didn't have the idea first, we just had this drive to make a movie [...] So we just sat down, to see if we could come up with something that we could shoot for a low budget." The story was later developed during a writer's retreat at Stewart's family home. At the retreat, the filmmakers had envisioned a scene of a lone warrior carrying a severed head inside a sack, stumbling into a room filled with heads mounted on the walls. With this scene in mind, the filmmakers wrote a forty-page script, which contained minimal dialogue, describing it as a medieval horror film. From the outset, both Downey and Stewart knew that the film would be low-budget with a small cast, which was all factored into the film's script. For inspiration, Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart have cited Jean-Jacques Annaud's Quest for Fire (1981), Robert Eggers' The Witch (2015), The X-Files, and Tales From the Crypt.
Pre-production
Early in pre-production, the two filmmakers decided to shoot in Soutelo Mourisco, a small village in Northern Portugal, due to the remoteness of its location. The filmmakers wanted to utilize the location for some time, feeling that its remoteness and scenery "would lend itself very well to a horror movie". For the titular character, they wanted the role to look and feel authentic, and refused to cast an American actor as they felt that it would not be appropriate for the period and feared that it would end up 'looking fake'. Norwegian actor Christopher Rygh was cast in the lead role, in his feature-film debut, after they discovered him on a casting website. Downey said that there was no formal audition; he was cast after discussions on the film.
Construction of the props and monsters commenced before the script was completed, with the filmmakers experimenting with the designs and techniques to accommodate their low budget. In creating the look and feel of decomposition in the severed heads, the production crew acquired old Halloween masks, staining them and placing layers of melted plastic over them to create the effect of rotting flesh. Other props for the film were purchased inexpensively by the production crew the day after Halloween, as Downey recalled: "we just bought every medieval thing in there we could find. Every plastic sword or shield, skeletons, and skulls, anything that just looked kind of creepy, crawly, medieval, or metal. We bought it all." The title character's armor was created by the Swedish costume designer André Bravin, who made it out of leather. Downey described the armor as 'being more Leatherface-esque, rather than a Game of Thrones-style vibe', with faces and skin appearing stitched into the entire outfit. The film's main antagonist, credited as "The Head", was designed Troy Smith, who had previously worked with Downey in both his Thankskilling series and Critters: Bounty Hunter.
Filming
Principal photography began in Bragança, Portugal, while additional scenes were shot in Norway, and Mammoth Lakes, California. With little dialogue in the film, Downey stated that he had always admired films that centered more on visual storytelling, rather than relying on dialogue to convey the story. To accommodate the film's low budget, the variety of creatures that appear throughout the film are only shown in glimpses or merely implied, the film's low budget also limited the amount of production crew, which, according to Stewart, only consisted of three other people, including himself and Downey. Shooting occasionally proved challenging, as the costumes and props had to be shot in a certain way to "look right on camera", and crew members, including Downey, performed multiple roles during production.
The climactic fight sequence was shot in a water mine, after one of Stewart's cousins suggested it as a possible location to film. The scene was devised as a way to enhance the threat of "The Head", by forcing the title character to fight it at less than full strength, as he is unable to use the weapons that he is accustomed to fighting with. Shooting at the location, as Downey stated, was the most difficult, and frustrating portion to shoot, with cast and crew members forced to enter the location one at a time. Describing the cave's conditions, Downey noted: "It was really crammed, dark and there were spiders and water up to our ankles and knees. The torch was putting off fumes and there was no ventilation." Downey developed a cold after shooting at the location. Rygh, who had previously starred in the Norwegian short film Ulfberht, was described by Downey as easy to work with, and never complained on set.
Music
Nick Soole composed the film score for The Head Hunter with some of the sound design provided by Soole. The soundtrack was released on Digital download on April 8, 2019. The soundtrack was featured in an official selection of Soole's works during the 2019 San Diego Comic Con's "Sounds of Horror" Panel on July 19, 2019. On September 15, 2020, it was given a limited edition "Viking Flame" vinyl by Ship To Shore, with copies including a 30-day free subscription to the streaming service Shudder.
Track listing
Release Festival screenings
The Head Hunter premiered at the Sitges Film Festival on October 6, 2018, to a sold-out crowd. It was later screened at the Nightmares Film Festival on October 20, 2018. While the film was screened at Sitges, and Nightmares Film Festival under the title The Head, it was changed to The Head Hunter in later screenings. According to filmmakers Downey and Stewart, the reason for the change was mainly due to lukewarm reactions under the initial name, with the film's distributor, Vertical Entertainment, suggesting a change in the film's title. After "combing through all kinds of medieval literature", the filmmakers later came up with the film's current title. Downey and Stewart were originally against the name change, but later embraced it as they felt the current title shifted the focus from the antagonist to the main character.
Under the new title, the film was screened at the Insólito Festival de Cine de Terror y Fantasía on February 7, 2019. It was screened at the Fantasporto Film Festival later that month on the 24th. It was selected for inclusion into the 54th annual Portland International Film Festival, and was screened in the "PIFF After Dark" section of the program on March 16, 2019.
Distribution and limited release Worldwide distribution rights for the film, under the original title The Head, were purchased by Vertical Entertainment on October 25, 2018, to launch international sales at the American Film Market on the 31st. The first trailer debuted on March 14, 2018, and received over 5million views. It became the #1 most viewed trailer on iTunes Movie Trailers, briefly surpassing the total views of current blockbusters including Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, and John Wick 3 according to Downey.
It received a limited theatrical release in the United States on April 5, 2019. The film premiered in Russia on May 1, 2019, grossing $44,652 in its limited run. On January 7, 2021, it premiered in Mexico with an additional $335,796 gross. It eventually accumulated a worldwide gross of $380,829.
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