Hunting Humans is a 2002 horror/thriller film about a Serial Killer named Aric (Rick Ganz) who one day starts receiving messages from a rival Serial Killer named Dark (Bubby Lewis). A game of cat and mouse between the two killers ensues.
This film provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title
- Battle of Wits: It's about a battle of wits between two Crazy-Prepared, supposedly ingenious serial killers, Aric and Dark. The fact that this information comes form a Something Awful review
might suggest something about how well it works. - Creepy Crossdresser: Dark. As Something Awful put it:"Despite his stupid name, I have to admit that Dark can be a pretty interesting character. Until this point in the movie we never actually see him. When he walks onscreen, however, he steals the show, mostly because he is wearing women's clothing. Without explanation. When you see a cross-dressing serial killer in a movie, he is usually wearing makeup in a dress. Something that says "hey, I am a psycho and I wear clothes that obviously belong to a woman." This is not the case with Dark. Instead of a skirt or something, he wears a pink tube-top and woman's executive jacket with padded shoulders. And, again, this is never explained. It is almost as if the movie goes out of its way to ignore this fact, like the only person who would take the role was some cross-dresser at the bus stop and they're trying to downplay the fact."
- Evil Versus Evil: This movie had one Serial Killer hunting another.
- Faux Affably Evil: Aric is superficially charming, but is a Serial Killer.
- Food Chain of Evil: The main character has a Nightmare Sequence where the fellow Serial Killer who has been hassling him appears as a supernatural creature that preys on infamous murderers."I'm the reason Jack the Ripper was never caught, and I'm the reason you'll never be caught. You're hunting humans, and I'm hunting you!"
- Master Poisoner: The serial killer protagonist reminisces about the time he killed one of his neighbors by inserting a lethal amount of codeine into eggs, which he resealed and gave to her.Aric: She was dead two mornings later. Cops came, made their rounds, but there was nothing to be found. They knew how she died, but they just assumed it was some psycho who was poisoning eggs. Big egg scare after that, though it was nothing compared to the Tylenol-cyanide thing.
- Murder Simulators: This low-grade thriller, in which two serial killers play a cat and mouse game with each other, gained a lot of notoriety after a copy of the film was found in the possession of convicted murderer Adam Leroy Lane.
- Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: The serial killer protagonist mentions once having a neighbor who saw herself as a health nut, so she ate raw eggs every morning. He puts her out of her misery by poisoning a few of them.
- Out-Gambitted: The finale is just one borderline ludicrous example of this after another. Let's see:
- Serial Killer A goes to the home of the detective that Serial Killer B hired to keep tabs on him, and kills him. Serial Killer B (revealed to be the detective that Serial Killer A hired to keep an eye on Serial Killer B's detective) shows up to ambush him.
- Serial Killer A reveals the detective isn't really dead, and that he hired him to his side.
- Serial Killer B reveals that he knew Serial Killer A would try to bribe the detective to his side, so he offered him $5,000 on top of whatever Serial Killer A offered him to remain loyal.
- Serial Killer A then reveals that he hacked into the detective's accounts and took all his money, and that the only way he can get it back is if Serial Killer A remains alive. After Serial Killer B kills the detective, Serial Killer A states he didn't take the money, he just made it look like he did.
- Serial Killer A reveals he has an ally outside ready to snipe Serial Killer B at his command.
- Serial Killer B manages to get outside, and into a wooded area, and when Serial Killer A follows him, Serial Killer B reveals that years of training have made him a fighting machine capable of countering everything that Serial Killer A throws at him.
- Serial Killer A kills him using one of eighteen guns he had hidden in the forest, knowing the Serial Killer B would come to the detective's house, and that their battle might take them outside.
- The Sociopath: Aric is an unrepentant Serial Killer who kills For the Evulz, follows a ser of rules to avoid getting caught, has little emotion but is skilled at faking emotion, and views himself as superior to humans.
- Villain Protagonist: Aric is an unrepentant Serial Killer with over 100 victims.
