YMMV / The Hunters

• Adorkable: Ove behaves quite childishly, but is probably the nicest person in the entire film. He loves animals, never does anything remotely selfish, and is always kind.
• Awesome Music: The opening.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • Bengtsson being involved in the hunters is so obvious it doesn't even deserve a spoiler tag.
  • Torsten is the true villain of the sequel, partially because it’s Peter Stormare.
• Complete Monster: Leif Bäckström, Erik Bäckström's brother, and the Big Bad of the first film, is the leader of the titular hunter gang and stands out even despite the dark and savage atmosphere of the film and its sequel. After being abused by his father, Erik eventually had enough and moved to the city, but Leif was forced to bear it for years, developing a hatred for Erik. Leif's first crime was when he fatally shot his own dog for not following his orders. His second act was after a member of his gang Tomme accidentally killed an innocent berry picker while hunting, and when the wife of the berry picker came, Leif brutally kills her, with everyone else slightly shocked by his cruelty. After Erik meets and befriends a Philippine immigrant, Leif, coming home, starts harassing her and Erik, eventually knocking her down, and the day after he brings the gang to rape her, just to provoke his brother. His final act however, is when he hears that the mentally-challenged Ove has told the police about what happened with the berry picker, and he lures Ove out in the forest to hunt, just so that he could kill him. After crying and hugging his brother who seemed to convince Leif to turn himself in, Leif instead pours gasoline all over their house and burns himself and the house down.
• Critical Dissonance: While the film is generally acclaimed for how unique it was at the time, and still is, it was criticized at its release due to stereotyping people from the north of Sweden, Norrland. MonteFjanton have stated in a review of the film that a lot of directors can't accept that their films are being criticized by critics, but that in this case it's quite the opposite; the critics couldn't accept that people liked the film.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Leif tends to get this treatment by some. Be it because of his hammy dialogues or his Freudian Excuse, many forget just how awful he is and what he has done (which is far beyond what his Freudian excuse can justify). Some people sympathize with him rather than of Love to Hate him because of this.
• Love to Hate: Lennart Jähkel's performance as the despicable Leif Bäckström, along with a healthy dose of hammy moments, has made the character one of the most famous swedish movie villains.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: While the film was criticised by some for its depiction of Northern Swedes, a lot of inhabitants from north of Sweden enjoyed the film in spite of said depictions, partially because most knew that the film took liberties for entertainment values sake.
• Memetic Mutation: Leif's hammy dialogues or the general dialogue, mostly the first film, have been remixed in multiple YouTube videos, mostly due to his funny accent and ridiculously villainous quotes, such as his xenophobic rant about why he hates Philippine people.
  • "Fjollträsk" (Fag-Swamp) was not a thing Norrlänningar used as a slur about Stockholm prior to this film. It was simply something the writers came up with, but a lot of people assumed it was a widespread concept.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • In the first film, most of Leif's previous actions can be explained in one way or another, him killing his dog for example being part of his Freudian Excuse, but when he rapes Nena and kills Ove, there's no going back.
  • When Torsten starts abusing his entire family, including his son Peter who he claims to love, he has gone too far. However, him killing Jari, the man he framed his own murder for, could also be seen as this, possibly an even bigger one as he does it all in a very smug way, and him abusing his family just shows him going from a manipulative psychopath to Ax-Crazy.
• Narm: In a very serious scene in the first film, where Leif is doing a rant about how much he hates immigrants while Erik is befriending a Philippine immigrant, Nena, the immigrant who Erik befriended, comes up and says "Shut up, fuck you". It simply doesn't sound very ambitious and she doesn't even look angry while saying it.
• Narm Charm: Interestingly enough, the same exact scene has this. Leif's long rant is without a doubt overly long and excessive, but it actually adds to his character more than any other scene.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: The subplot with Nena in the first film is considered this because it basically has no connection to the main plot of the movie whatsoever and after Leif brutally rapes her she disappears from the narrative altogether, so she didn't contribute to anything and the scenes with her feels enforced and just done for further shock-value.

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