Bounty (2009) Review

Synopsis

A trio of bounty hunters in search of a fugitive find something more horrifying than they can imagine.

Bounty Good Points

• Bounty is very low budget, and a very rough-around-the-edges style film, but it also gives it some personality and charm I thought.
  
  
• The lead role, played by Tom Proctor, was better than I anticipated, and it wasn’t as overly dramatic as I was imagining it would be either.
  
  
• The dialogue is messy, but again, I thought it was in a rather charmful kind of way, with people talking over each other a lot, like they’ve just been stuck together too long.
  
  
• A slow opening to the film helps build the group dynamic properly before the horror side actually kicked in.
  
  
• It also avoids the usual “constant screaming and jump scares” approach and lets the tension build slowly.
  
  
• The chemistry between the crew feels believable enough, especially the sense that they all secretly annoy each other.
  
  
• Once the horror does escalate, the shift in tone works well enough, because the groundwork was actually established first, so it doesn’t feel jarring, which is always good.
  
  
• The later sections become much darker and nastier than the opening suggests, so even if you’re a little bored by the opening, stick with it.
  
  
• There’s a nice balance between humour and tension throughout, but especially when the bounty hunters realize they are completely out of their depth.
  
  
• Some scenes genuinely create tension just through people slowly realising things are wrong rather than through boo moments, which I always like.
  
  
• It commits fully to its grimy little world instead of trying to become something bigger or more important halfway through, so it knows what it is and doesn’t pretend otherwise.

Bounty Bad Points

• The pacing is definitely too slow in places, especially during some of the driving and conversation-heavy scenes, and it starts testing your patience before the story moves forward again.
  
  
• The found footage camera logic becomes hard to ignore as things escalate because nobody would realistically keep filming that long, but as FF fans, I am sure we are used to that by now anyway.
  
  
• Some of the acting is not good, especially among smaller supporting roles.
  
  
• A few scenes felt a bit awkwardly improvised to me.
  
  
• I wasn’t sure about the montage sections either, and I am not sure they were needed at all.
  
  
• The horror takes a long time to properly arrive, so if you’re expecting it from the off, this isn’t for you.
  
  
• While the early “hanging out with bounty hunters” sections helped build the dynamic, it was also a bit repetitive at times.
  
  
• Visually it isn’t good at all, which you might expect with the budget, but other films have shown low budget horror doesn’t have to be as visually bad.
  
  
• The film sometimes lingers too long before getting to the actual point.

Final Thoughts on Bounty

Bounty was recommended to me via email from a reader (Hi!), and it’s the kind of horror movie made by people who did seem to care about atmosphere and personalit, which works in its favour.

It has issues of course, but it also has a bit of identity too, and if you like grimy low-budget horror with a bit of weird personality, this one’s worth digging up.

Bounty Trailer
Bounty on IMDB
Watch Bounty