Judging by its plot description, Project Wolf Hunting sounded like it might be a South Korean take on a werewolf action horror movie, perhaps something like Dog Soldiers on a cargo ship made with a Train to Busan level of competence.
Turns out it’s something like… bad. The plot breaks down like this.
Authorities stuff a bunch of hardened criminals on a cargo ship bound for Korea. Simultaneously, a shadowy organization uses the cargo ship to transport a superhuman killing machine. Apparently, cargo ships are incredibly secure means of transportation where nothing can go wrong. That’s why the President of the United States goes everywhere in them.
Anyway, it all goes wrong, not only within the movie, but with the movie itself. Let us count the ways.
Project Edge Lord
First off, Project Wolf Hunting has an edge lord esthetic. Everyone in the movie is a meat bag with a hose running up their pants cuff that sprays red water whenever they are shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned, and they are shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned a lot. A better title for the movie would have been Project Shot, Stabbed, and Bludgeoned.
All of the characters are also too cool for school. I’m pretty sure all of them wear sunglasses in nightclubs. There is also very little to differentiate one from another beyond clothes, hairstyle, and gender. Or maybe I’m simply a raging racist and all South Koreans look the same to me. Either way, it’s still a bad movie.
Have you ever wanted to see a man stab another man and urinate on him? If so, Project Wolf Hunting might be for you. Want to see a man crush the head of another man performing an obscene act? Project Wolf Hunting might be for you. Want to see a man rip off another man’s arm and beat him to death with it? Project Wolf Hunting might be for you. Want to see a woman sitting on a toilet while another woman does her nails? Project Wolf Hunting might be for you.
It’s not for me. Maybe Project Wolf Hunting achieves some sort of exploitation benchmarks? Boba and Shawn would have to view it and weigh in on that possibility. I cannot in good conscience ask them to take the time, however.
I didn’t even fully take the time. At various points, I did other things while the movie ran in the background, up to and including doing dishes. No fear of missing vital plot points existed. The only thing I maybe missed was Stabbing #47 and Bludgeoning #82. Admittedly, those might have been particularly artistic and nuanced stabbings and bludgeonings that changed the dynamic of the entire picture. On the other hand, I’m willing to take the chance that they did not.
One thing in the movie’s favor is that no one is safe. It doesn’t matter if you are plucky female cop. You aren’t stronger than any man. You are as vulnerable to getting shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned as anyone else. Project Wolf Hunting is equality at its finest.
But let’s get back to the plot. You know how plots serve as the narrative drive of a movie? They often have three acts and a climax. Challenges are introduced to overcome. Twists can happen. Some of those things exist in Project Wolf Hunting, but mostly the plot is there to simply hurt your brain. Project Wolf Hunting is mentally abusive. We should report it to social services.
I Have Questions
Why did the shadowy organization choose to transport their superhuman killing machine on a cargo ship? They seem to be well-funded and well-established. At one point, they even use their very own helicopter to transport a superhuman kill squad to the cargo ship. Could they not have used that very same helicopter to transport the superhuman killing machine in the first place?
Why do they need a third-party doctor to periodically go into the hold of the cargo ship and dose the superhuman killing machine with fresh sedative? A shadowy organization that has medical experiments as its bread and butter can’t have a doctor on staff to inject sedatives?
Man, the medical industry has gotten overly-specialized.
Speaking of the superhuman killing machine… If he has been on ice since the World War II era, could someone at least give him a sponge bath? Dude has the same blood-spatter on him in 2023 as he had in 1943. That can’t be comfortable.
This superhuman killing machine creates a lot of questions. It is established that he is essentially bulletproof, yet a cop character chews the superhuman killing machine’s arm off at one point. Yes, you read that right. Seems to me bullets are more damaging than teeth, but whatever.
It is also established that the superhuman killing machine sees the heat of victims, Predator-style. Yet, a very much alive girl is able to fool him by playing dead on top of corpses that have been in a freezer for a few hours. Seems to me, her heat signature would be very apparent in that situation. Then again, this was the girl on the toilet, and maybe the superhuman killing machine just found her gross.
And why is the shadowy organization preserving the superhuman killing machine? He was the first subject in a genetics experiment to prolong life. Since then, the members of the shadowy organization have continued to test and seem to have had success, as they have their own superhuman powers as well. They must simply be preserving the guy for historical value. Are they transporting him to put him in their shadowy organization museum?
Meanwhile, some sort of subplot exists where one of the prisoners is also a superhuman killing machine, whose wife was killed by one of the other superhuman killing machines, and he had an infant son who you thought was killed by one of the other superhuman killing machines, but he was actually taken to the lair of the superhuman killing machines and is being kept prisoner so that he can be rescued by his superhuman killing machine father in a sequel.
I suspect the rescue mission will include lots of stabbing, shooting, and bludgeoning. And please let there be a woman on a toilet while another woman does her nails. That stuff brings a touch of class to the proceedings. Toilets are very Hitchcockian.
Conclusion
Project Wolf Hunting was written and directed by Kim Hong-seon. I would like to look up his filmography and tell you more, but I don’t want to encourage him.
Cargo ships make for fun locales in horror movies, like Deep Rising or Virus. My hope with Project Wolf Hunting was Dog Soldiers on a cargo ship, but I got doggie-doo on a paper boat.
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