As a child, I loved watching The Incredible Hulk TV show, and of course the moments I lived for where when Banner transformed into the monstrous Hulk. That creature was played by Lou Ferrigno, and so it was a nice surprise to see him starring as the appropriately hulking cannibal antagonist of the Salvatore Sclafani directed and William Walkerley written The Hermit.
While begrudgingly out camping with her widower father, teenager Lisa (Malina Weissman - A Series of Unfortunate Events TV series) and boyfriend Eric (Anthony Turpel) end up lost in the woods and stumble across the property of an isolated pig farmer (Ferrigno). They end up being captured by the mentally challenged man, with it revealed that the state famous beef jerky he sells to the local petrol station is actually made from people he has abducted!
All of this has happened in the past, in present day, Lisa is recounting to a journalist (Julie Chang) how she managed to escape from her captor.
Having the main story of The Hermit being one being told by the final girl made for some interesting moments, but it was a double edged sword, also creating issues along the way. Rather than the film start and the survivor tells her story which changes into the movie proper, this instead has a relatively frequent back and forth between the past and present. After key events the journalist quizzes Lisa on inconsistencies in her story, and entire key scenes are only mentioned by the protagonist rather than actually shown on screen. This leads to certain scenes that appear out of nowhere, ruining the flow and pacing of the story being told. It was interesting having the core story move around in time, but the frequent enough interrupts also got in the way, removing me from the movie. The reason for all the disconnect and time skips becomes apparent in the final ten minutes. This section drastically rewrites large sections of the story, making the viewer question evidence previously shown. To be honest, I don't think this part was handled the best, it tried to do too much in too short a time frame. I still thought it was pretty fun, and I liked the montage type sequence that juxtaposed sweet music with the horror unfolding on screen. There were a few too many silly twists, some of which were not bad, but others that I saw coming a mile away.
Lisa was fine as the lead character, though Eric was really annoying, even if I think that was the whole point of his character. Lisa's father was wasted, being built up before disappearing from the movie in an underwhelming way. The titular villain wasn't terrible, I enjoyed that while he is portraying the stereotypical giant killer, he has elements to him that make him fit into the world somewhat better. The man is able to speak, albeit simply, and never wears a mask to conceal his identity, instead his long lank hair often covers his face. There are even a few scenes showing him interacting with people in a normal non-murderous way. He made for a sympathetic villain, his backstory shown via hallucinations and flashbacks give him a Friday the 13th type of unadulterated love for his mother, whose brutal methods for raising her simple child inadvertently caused him to become who he does.
I will save the best character for last though, Ranger Cadet Scott (Christopher Collins) might have only had a small role, and he may have been a comedy character, but I loved him. I found his scenes legitimately funny, and the inclusion of a series of goofy TikTok videos from the character were a stroke of genius.
Mentioning the kills briefly, the hermit's weapon of choice is a giant pointy wooden pole, and he skewers many victims over the course of the film. I'm not entirely sure why, but often these kills lacked impact,. I wasn't sure if it was bad CGI effects, or just the way the kills were framed, but they seldom seemed to pack much punch to them. Still, it was a cool weapon regardless of how realistic the kills appeared on screen. Related to the kill scenes, I found it a bit stupid how the gigantic killer was constantly able to somehow sneak up on people without them being aware, but that is a trope of the genre!
The odd pacing and interrupts throughout The Hermit might make sense by the end of the movie, but I still found them distracting. I felt the film was at times too over-produced, it would have benefitted from a more grindhouse-y The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe, and the inclusion of more gore would have also been more welcome. Ferrigno made for a decent enough antagonist, looking the part, and managing to be sympathetic, but also being a tiny bit bland and forgettable. For all its faults, I still found myself enjoying The Hermit, so it must have done some things right!
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