This animal-attack horror plugs a gap with beasties – hippopotamuses – that may be deadly in real life but are hard to take seriously as a threat on screen. As someone says here, they have cute ears. Even the film’s title, evoking the kids’ game Hungry Hungry Hippos, diminishes the menace. That’s perhaps not the tone to set if you’re trying to persuade audiences that fatal consequences are in the offing. And as the script often reminds us, hippos are vegetarian, so hunger isn’t driving these multi-ton mammals to murder. Turns out they’re massively territorial, and especially dangerous when protecting their young. That, or they do just think killing people is fun.
The film naturally spends less time worrying about the hippos’ motives and dwells more on the victims, who look pretty doomed given their thin characterisations. This lot certainly weren’t expecting to be attacked by a hippo when they woke up because they are on a bayou tour in Louisiana, where the biggest threats are normally alligators.
Easily winning girl-least-likely-to-get-hippotomised because she’s nice is Sistine (Madison Davenport) – an all-American cute ingenue who has come along with her sassy best friend Hannah (Olivia Bernstone), who is mainly focused on hunky tour guide Rodrigo (Michel Curiel). Also on board the boat are an assortment of folk with varying degrees of likability, including a retired fireman (Jim Meskimen), his middle-aged daughter (Samantha Coughlan), her teenage son (River Codack), and finally a career lady (Tracey Bonner) clad in very bayou-unfriendly suit and stilettos.
Writer-director James Nunn and his team are clearly less interested in developing character than in building suspense with ominous splashes at the edge of the frame. The film’s strongest suit, apart from the scary hippo itself, is the mechanics of rescue and beast evasion, with our girl Sistine’s gymnast training coming in handy, as does the fireman’s knowledge of pulleys and levers. But none of that cancels out the essential silliness of the premise.
• Hungry is on Sky Cinema from 4 September
