Hunting Season – Movie Review (3/5)

HUNTING SEASON is a new crime-thriller with a survival plot. I didn’t expect much from it, so maybe that’s why I was pleasantly surprised.  Mel Gibson stars as a man leading a very simple and isolated life with his daughter, but when trouble finds him, he is ready to fight back. Read our full Hunting Season movie review here!

HUNTING SEASON is a crime-thriller starring Mel Gibson. The story has a classic survival plot, but it was also very character-driven in a way I enjoyed. And, honestly, I didn’t expect too much from this movie. Mostly because the past many years, movies with Mel Gibson have been all over the place in terms of quality.

ONE OF THE WORST MEL GIBSON MOVIES…

Well, for me anyway, was this 2024 mess of a release >

What I’m trying to say, in a roundabout way, is simply that I was pleasantly surprised. Even the runtime of 93 minutes made for an efficient genre mix of a movie. Alongside crime and thriller, we also get action, mystery, and (as always) drama.

Continue reading our Hunting Season movie review below. Find it in theaters and on digital from December 5, 2025.

Don’t mess with a survivalist

Or maybe that should be, don’t mess with a survivalist on their home turf, as this is what happens in Hunting Season. When bad guys come around the home of Bowdrie (Mel Gibson) and his daughter, Tag (Sofia Hublitz), they are ready to fight back. Of course, the bad guys aren’t going after the reclusive father and daughter, but rather another young woman.

It all begins when a mysterious woman washes up on the riverbank near their cabin in the woods. She has clearly been shot and is struggling to survive. The feisty teenage daughter manages to convince her overprotective father that they have to help her.

Unfortunately, the people who hurt her are now looking for her. This includes a ruthless drug lord, who doesn’t care how many lives are hurt or taken in the process.

Surprisingly efficient storytelling

As already mentioned, I am nervous about expecting too much from a movie starring Mel Gibson. A real shame as someone who has a quote from Braveheart tattooed on her body – not that I’ll ever regret this, because that movie is a masterpiece. Anyway, with Hunting Season, we’re not getting a masterpiece, but we are getting a very efficient genre-hybrid with solid storytelling.

Also, we’re getting some solid performances from Mel Gibson (Braveheart), Sofia Hublitz (Ozark), and Shelley Hennig (Ouija, Unfriended). These three have most of the runtime in Hunting Season, which serves the movie well.

I was not a fan of the way Jordi Mollà (Riddick) plays the role of the evil drug lord. To me, it was way over the top, which I must assume is what the director asked for, but I just do not get it. It felt more like a parody than a portrayal of any real person.

Watch Hunting Season in Theaters or On Digital

Hunting Season was directed by Raja Collins (on IMDb, he’s listed as RJ Collins), and the screenplay comes from Adam Hampton. Raja Collins previously worked as a producer on a few movies we’ve reviewed here on Heaven of Horror.

This includes The Wrath of Becky (2023) and Trapped Inn (2024). Fair warning, the latter is really not a good movie.

If you enjoy a good survival movie with strong and fleshed-out (to a point, anyway) main characters, you’ll enjoy this one. Especially if you don’t mind a villain that comes across more like a kitsch character, and doesn’t mind leaning into every single cliché you can think of.

HUNTING SEASON is in theaters and on digital December 5, 2025.

Details

Director: Raja Collins
Script: Adam Hampton
Stars: Mel Gibson, Sofia Hublitz, Shelley Hennig, A.J. Buckley, Jordi Mollà, James DuMont, Rocky Myers