When word first got around that someone was making a movie called Hungry about a killer hippo terrorizing tourists in the Louisiana bayou, almost everyone assumed we were getting a trashy, tongue-in-cheek B-movie. The internet immediately started making jokes about Hasbro copyright lawsuits and Hungry Hungry Hippos, expecting a schlocky, self-aware creature feature along the lines of Cocaine Bear or Sharknado.
Instead, director James Nunn made something surprisingly gloomy, strangely deadpan, and almost completely devoid of wink-at-the-camera humor. Hungry is an 88-minute survival thriller that takes its bizarre premise with absolute, straight-faced seriousness. It does not always work, and it definitely suffers from pacing issues that will test the patience of anyone expecting a non-stop monster rampage, but there is something fascinating about a movie that refuses to give the audience the easy, campy ride they asked for.
The setup is basic enough to write on the back of a coaster. Sistine is having a miserable month. She just lost her job, her mother is sick, and she is dragged along on a trip to New Orleans by her best friend Hannah to clear her head. Looking for cheap local activities, they sign up for a discounted swamp tour led by an easygoing guide named Rodrigo. The rest of the pontoon boat fills out with standard horror movie bait: a wealthy businesswoman named Dionne who bribes Rodrigo to take them off the designated safety path, a nurse named Sally, her retired firefighter dad Tim, and her teenage son Mikey.
Before they drop the boat into the water, we meet Rodrigo's boss, Walker. Walker gives a quick, throwaway speech about historical efforts back in the early twentieth century to introduce African hippopotamuses into the American Gulf Coast as a meat source. That is essentially all the exposition you get. The film does not bother explaining how a massive, highly territorial apex predator has been breeding unnoticed in the Louisiana wetlands, and honestly, it does not need to. You are either buying into the setup or you are not.
The weirdest creative choice Nunn makes is holding back the main attraction for nearly an hour. The first fifty minutes of Hungry are almost entirely dedicated to character setup, low-key interpersonal friction, and the quiet, claustrophobic atmosphere of being stranded in a swamp. For a movie named after a killer animal, it takes its sweet time getting to the actual killing. You get long stretches of dialogue between tourists who do not particularly like each other, floating past murky tree lines while tension slowly builds.
When the hippo finally hits, though, it hits like a freight train. The initial attack capsizes the tour boat with incredible force, throwing everyone into muddy water where they are completely out of their element. Nunn handles the physical geography of the swamp well. The water is pitch black, the vegetation is dense, and the threat feels genuinely heavy. Hippos in real life are famously brutal, aggressive territorial units, and the film captures that terrifying speed and blunt mass accurately. The visual effects team deserves credit here. Instead of relying on a rubbery, obvious CGI creation, the production blends practical set pieces with CG touches that actually look grounded in the lighting of the environment.
Once the boat goes down, the narrative collapses into a series of claustrophobic micro-situations. Survivors are scattered, climbing up into cypress trees or clinging to the overturned hull of the boat while the creature circles them like an amphibious tank. This is where the movie gets messy, both structurally and emotionally.
Instead of turning into an action-packed creature feature, Hungry settles into a bleak, almost suffocating survival drama. The characters do not suddenly become hyper-competent action heroes. They scream, they make terrible panic-driven decisions, they freeze up, and they argue over who should risk stepping back into the water.
There is one specific subplot involving Sally that takes the movie into surprisingly dark territory. Without spoiling every detail, she witnesses horrific family loss in the span of roughly two minutes. Rather than handling it like standard B-movie fodder where characters cry for ten seconds and then start shooting shotguns, the film lets her descend into a catatonic state of shock that feels wildly out of place for a killer hippo flick, yet somehow gives the story a raw, uncomfortable edge. It feels like a bleak drama snuck into the middle of a creature feature for ten minutes.
That clash between expectation and tone is what will make or break the film for most viewers. If you are watching this with a group of friends hoping to laugh at ridiculous gore kills and goofy creature effects, you are probably going to be disappointed. The violence is surprisingly restrained in terms of blood, relying more on the suddenness of the dragging underwater and the crushing force of the animal than on graphic splatter. There are long quiet stretches where characters just sit in tree branches shivering, talking about their failures back home while the water stays still below them.
The lead actress does a lot of heavy lifting to keep the emotional core intact. Her character, Sistine, could have easily been a generic final girl, but she plays her with a frantic, exhausted energy that works well. Dionne is also solid, giving a performance that avoids turning her initial arrogance into a simple villain caricature. Even the actor playing Tim brings a grounded, weary presence to his brief role before things go sideways.
On a technical level, the score does a ton of work building mood. Instead of relying on loud, jump-scare brass blasts, the music leans into low, rattling percussion and heavy string drones that mirror the murky bayou setting. The cinematography shoots the swamp with a lot of natural texture, avoiding the overly polished, flat look that plagues so many modern direct-to-digital thrillers. The camera stays low to the water line, keeping you feeling as trapped and disoriented as the tourists.
The third act gets a little ridiculous with its internal logic, particularly when a late-game plot point involves an entangled baby hippo that suddenly re-frames the creature's entire rampage. It introduces a slightly saccharine beat right at the end that feels a bit unearned after eighty minutes of relentless misery and waterborne panic. Characters also make a few absurd choices near the climax, like wandering off toward strange noises while actively being hunted, that feel like pure script mechanics rather than believable human behavior.
Still, there is something respectable about a low-budget thriller that attempts to treat its audience like adults, even when the premise sounds like a joke. James Nunn took a gimmick that could have easily been turned into late-night channel filler and tried to craft an actual movie out of it. It is flawed, occasionally frustratingly slow, and definitely too mopey for its own good at times, but it has a distinct personality.
Hungry is not going to redefine the animal attack genre, and it certainly will not replace Jaws or Rogue on anyone's favorite lists. But as a tight, slightly grim survival exercise designed for a Friday night with friends and a few cocktails, it delivers just enough tension and unexpected grit to earn its place in the swamp. If you can adjust your expectations away from goofy monster comedy and toward a slow-burn survival nightmare, it is worth a look.
Hungry hits DVD on August 11 via Decal Partners. It's not the kind of high-budget spectacle you need on a pristine 4K disc, but as a low-key physical release for a quiet movie night, having a standard DVD copy sitting next to your other obscure animal attack flicks feels oddly appropriate.
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