Review: ‘Hungry’ Chows Down With Crowd-Pleasing, Killer Hippo Thrills

Hungry is a movie that knows exactly what it is. While that might sound like a backhanded endorsement, indicative of a movie that never aspires to be more than it should be, I mean it in the most complimentary terms. James Nunn works wonders within an established wheelhouse, setting a killer hippo loose among some bayou buckos, eschewing the faux sincerity too many contemporary monster movies dabble in. Hungry is about a giant, monstrous hippopotamus, and it more than delivers on that front.

The set-up is simple, especially for anyone who’s seen river-cruise-gone-wrong fare like Hatchet, Rogue, Anaconda, I could keep going. Staying on the beaten path is key, but when Sistine (Madison Davenport) and Hannah (Olivia Bernstone) book tickets for a Louisiana boat tour, they’re blithely unaware of how their guide/driver, Rodrigo (Michel Curiel), has accepted an under-the-table commission to take the group off-course to witness an unusually large alligator.

Characterization is slim beyond the archetypes. Sistine is obviously the protagonist, fired over a denied vacation request in the opening minutes, grappling with amorphous grief (though never distractingly so). Hannah is the best friend. Dionne (Tracey Bonner) delights as an agent of chaos running down the clock. They’re largely here to be hippo fodder, and on that front, Hungry is happy to feast.

Their boat is capsized, and they’re stranded in the remote bayou, fearful of everything but a killer hippo, because why would there reasonably be one there? Well, there is, and Nunn (who also wrote the script) plays to the subgenre’s greatest hits. Close calls in the water, fake-out scares, and lots of people screaming, “Swim” at one another. There’s nothing revolutionary, beyond the hippo itself, but Nunn treats it with the utmost respect, cashing in on tropes guaranteed to heighten pulses even when the outcome is all but inevitable.