Project Wolf Hunting (2022)

Lots of fighting!
Lots of fighting!

Starring Seo In-guk, Jang Dong-yoon, Choi Gwi-hwa, Sung Dong-il, Park Ho-san, Jung Moon-sung and Jung So-min. Written by Kim Hong-sun, directed by Kim Hong-sun, and produced by Gu Seong-mok.
Cheum Film/Contents G

Guns!
Guns!

More guns!
More guns!

Wow! This is a really visceral, cool & bloody action-horror-sci-fi flick!

Lots of blood!
Lots of blood!

A group of South Korean prisoners are transported from the Philippines in the cargo ship Frontier Titan, overseen by a large team of Korean police officers, led by Seok-woo (Ho-san). The  surly cons are kept in line by the cops, but it all gets very bloody as a murderous team takes over the vessel, the prisoners are freed, and then an unstoppable being escapes from his restraints in the bowels of the ship…

Poster
Poster
There's a lot of stabbing in this flick
There’s a lot of stabbing in this flick
Just to reiterate: this ultra-violent flick is fond of knifings (and shootings, bludgeonings, etc)!

The start of PROJECT WOLF HUNTING is paced nicely, showing us around the ship and introducing the cops, the cons and the ship’s crew members. But soon the killings start and we’re left in no doubt that director Kim Hong-sun intends to deliver a non-stop, blood-drenched, action-filled movie where the visceral, violent aspects of the story take precedence over the plotting and characterisations. This approach has been criticised by some reviewers, but I appreciate Hong-sun’s commitment to making such a no-holds-barred production where the brutal carnage and action is the whole point of the movie. And, anyway, this isn’t to say that the characters are blandly sketched, because the director still manages to imbue many of the bad guys with a warped, sick charisma, especially the tattooed psycho Jong-du (In-guk) and the ruthless, machine gun-toting inside man Kim Gyu-tae (Moon-sung).

Kim is a cold-blooded killer, like many of the other characters!
Kim is a cold-blooded killer, like many of the other characters!

When the superhuman killing machine Alpha (Gwi-hwa) begins his murder spree at the midpoint, the carnage intensifies. Alpha, who has swollen flesh around his eyes that are sewn shut with outsized staples, stomps loudly about the ship like a part-zombie terminator. This monstrous dude cannot be reasoned with and is revealed to be a lobotomised human weapon test subject for the Kemono Project, a Japanese-run experiment dating back to the Second World War. We’re even treated to a flashback that shows Alpha bludgeoning a team of Japanese soldiers to death with a human skull!

Alpha is initially in storage below deck...
Alpha is initially in storage below deck…
...but once the zombie-like Alpha awakens he really goes on a killing spree!
…but once the zombie-like Alpha awakens he really goes on a killing spree!

An extra layer of complication is added for the surviving cops (and several ‘nice’ cons) when it’s divulged that the pharma company Aeon Genetics is behind the presence of Alpha on the ship: they’d been bringing Alpha to South Korea to find out why he doesn’t age. With chaos reigning on the cargo vessel, Aeon flies in a helicopter full of mercs, but these all end up dying in grisly ways too, just like most of the cast.

This isn't merely 'a super soldier extravaganza', it is an 'extraordinarily gory super soldier extravaganza'!
This isn’t merely ‘a super soldier extravaganza’, it is an ‘extraordinarily gory super soldier extravaganza’!

In a film where various characters are revealed to be the super-powered results of experimentation, arterial blood-jets go off like lawn sprinklers, and heads get caved-in on a regular basis, this well-shot, ultra-violent sci-fi-horror-actioner keeps you constantly guessing as to which characters might stand a chance of surviving until the end of a movie that’s awash with puddles, squirts, rivulets and torrents of blood. In case you didn’t know already: I think this flick is bloody ace!

This scene doesn't end well for all the Japanese characters!
This scene doesn’t end well for all the Japanese characters!

Alright then, one more shot from the movie…

Seo In-guk, as a tattooed psycho-killer, kills yet another victim!
Seo In-guk, as a tattooed psycho-killer, knifes yet another victim!

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