'Hungry' Review: A Crowd Pleasing River Rampage That Truly Bites
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
By Shauna Bushe - June 25, 2026
We’ve been conditioned to think of hippopotamuses as lumbering, mud-dwelling herbivores. But anyone familiar with the wild knows they are pure, territorial power. Hungry capitalizes on that primal dread, serving up a gloriously chaotic, practical-feeling monster movie that breathes massive new life into the creature feature genre.
What is 'Hungry' about?
Directed by James Nunn, the 2026 survival horror film Hungry follows a diverse group of vacationers who embark on what is supposed to be a routine alligator-watching riverboat tour through the Louisiana bayou. The excursion takes a deadly turn when their guide steers them off the beaten path and unknowingly into the territory of a massive, ravenous, and highly territorial hippopotamus. Stranded in the murky swamplands with no immediate hope of rescue, the tourists must set aside their personal struggles and work together to survive the relentless onslaught of the bloodthirsty predator.
What makes Hungry so incredibly tense is how cinematographer Job Reineke shoots the Louisiana swamplands, transforming the setting from a beautiful backdrop into a suffocating cage. The camera frequently hovers just an inch or two above the waterline, which completely strips away the audience's depth perception. You cannot see what is lurking beneath the duckweed and floating algae, turning every ripple into a heart-stopping guessing game. Help is not coming because the labyrinth of narrow channels swallows up sound, creating a brilliant paradox where the characters are trapped in a massive, wide-open outdoor space that feels as claustrophobic as a locked room.
Rather than offering brainless horror movie tropes, the script spends its first half actually fleshing out the ensemble so that their eventual peril carries weight. The heart of the film lies with Sistine (Madison Davenport). Sistine, is not a flawless action heroine; she is a deeply vulnerable young woman drowning in real-world guilt over her inability to properly care for her ailing mother. Her internal struggle with failure and her fear of losing her home give her a relatable quality that anchors the film, a burden she frequently confides in her fiercely loyal best friend, Hannah (Olivia Bernstone) who acts as Sistine's emotional rock and voice of reason. She is surrounded by a clashing dynamic of personalities, including Walker (Joaquim de Almeida) an experienced local guide. Tim (Jim Meskimen) a protective grandfather who is trying to keep his family safe, including his impressionable young grandson, Mikey (River Codack) and his daughter Sally (Samantha Coughlan) who provides the medical experience of the group. On the other end of the spectrum is Dionne (Tracey Bonner) who’s demanding, entitled attitude and large tip initiated the fatal detour in the first place, injecting a sharp, selfish desperation into the group's survival dynamic.
Hungry excels at the survival trope by leaning into tactical vulnerability. Early on, the script explicitly lays out the terrifying reality of their situation: hippos are herbivores, meaning the beast is not hunting them out of hunger, but out of a fierce, explosive territorial aggression. This shifts the survival strategy entirely, as the characters cannot just wait the animal out or distract it with food; they have to learn to navigate its unforgiving sense of dominance. As the chaos thins the ranks and Sistine emerges into the classic Final Girl position, her progression is handled with a refreshing thematic symmetry. Instead of magically transforming into a weapon-wielding combat expert, her survival is deeply psychological. She channels the fierce, protective energy she wished she could have provided for her mother, mirroring the brutal determination of the beast hunting her. Her ultimate survival is not a stylized triumph, but an exhausting, muddy, and traumatic endurance test born of pure, desperate adaptability.
On a technical level, Hungry works best when it embraces physical filmmaking and rejects weightless digital gloss. The production design shines by employing exceptional practical animatronics from Dan Martin’s 13 Finger FX for the mid-range shots and close-up strikes. When you see the colossal, slime-slicked snout of the hippo breaking through the water's surface, or the terrifying, jagged reality of its actual teeth splintering a wooden log, the threat feels entirely tangible. The physical mass of the puppet gives the actors something real to react to, and it shows in their genuine panic. While the film occasionally drops the ball during frantic, high-speed wide shots (where the fully digital CGI hippo can look a bit too artificially fast) the overall reliance on practical blood splatter, real mud, and mechanical effects keeps the violence feeling mean, heavy, and merciless.
Hungry takes a completely wild B-movie concept and elevates it through atmospheric dread and deep character sincerity. By utilizing the dense, murky claustrophobia of the Louisiana bayou and grounding the horror with spectacular practical effects, James Nunn has delivered a gripping survival thriller. Hungry treats its characters like real people and its monster like an absolute juggernaut, proving that the horror genre has a terrifying new heavyweight champion.
'Hungry' released on VOD on June 23.
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