The first wave of the pandemic brought the film and television industry to its knees, and it took more than two years for Hollywood to emerge from that slump. While several titles have been singled out and praised as trailblazers for forging ahead with production and release at the height of COVID, nobody seems to mention Warhunt, which finds Mickey Rourke hunting witches during World War II.
The schedule had to be readjusted so the Academy Award nominee could make it to the set in Latvia before the country shut its borders, with the crew abiding by government guidelines by implementing masks, gloves, twice-daily temperature checks, social distancing, and regular disinfecting of all equipment. As a result, Warhunt called it a wrap in April 2020, when virtually the entire world was in a state of lockdown, with millions of people unable to even leave their homes.
Reviews were about as strong as you’d expect from a B-tier hybrid of action thriller and horror that finds Rourke and his motley crew dropped behind enemy lines in the midst of WW2, only to find themselves confronted by a cabal of witches that have laid waste to a platoon of Nazi soldiers, with the coven seeking to wage their own war by supernatural, mystical, and altogether deadly means, but it does deliver on a suitably insane premise.
It’s not high art, then, but it has struck a chord with streaming subscribers nonetheless. As per FlixPatrol, Warhunt has become one of the top titles on Amazon’s ad-supported platform Freevee, even if the majority of viewers will no doubt be checking it out for the gonzo schlock, as opposed to the film’s status as one of the most unlikely cinematic game-changers of recent times.
