The Reel Review
Tourists on an alligator tour through the bayous of Louisiana must fight to stay alive after an enormous deadly hippopotamus capsizes their boat and starts attacking them. Madison Davenport, Joaquim de Almeida (Queen of the South, Fast Five) and Tracey Bonner (Sweet Magnolias, The Exorcism) star in this horror/thriller.
Nevermind the fact that there are no hippos in Louisiana (the eventual explanation for how this one ended up there is pretty far-fetched, to say the least), for a predictable, low-budget creature feature, the action in Hungry is surprisingly well done, despite a swamp setting that disappointingly looks like the soundstage on which much of Hungry was filmed.
The blend of hippo practical effects and CGI from writer/director James Nunn (Wildcat, One Shot) is actually surprisingly good for a low budget film – it just would have been nice to have more of it. Davenport, who bears an incredible resemblance to a Mean Girls-era Lindsay Lohan, is the film’s anchor as Sistine, a chronically unlucky young woman who in this crisis, discovers a knack for survival. Only slightly above average, Hungry will fit the bill for anyone wanting a mindless creature feature.
REEL FACTS
• Highly territorial and aggressive, hippopotamuses are the deadliest large land animals on Earth, responsible for approximately 500 human deaths each year in their native sub-Saharan Africa. Most deaths occur when hippos capsize boats and use their massive jaws and sharp teeth to pulverize their human prey.
• Madison Davenport’s acting credits include the HBO Max miniseries Sharp Objects and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.
• Although set in the bayous south of New Orleans, Louisiana, most of the filming for Hungry took place in Malta.
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