13 Nights of Shocktober: Headhunters (2012)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 9: Non-Supernatural Thriller Night

“My name is Roger Brown. I’m 5’6” tall. And you know what? That’s more than enough."

Headhunters (2012)

I’ve only seen a handful of foreign thrillers and Headhunters, from Norway, released in the states in 2012, is among the best and most exciting and thrilling. It hits every note it should, and several you don’t see coming. The director, MortenTyldum, would follow up this film with the Oscar nominated biopic The Imitation Game. While that film goes out of its way to be a conventional biopic, Headhunters does not use genre conventions as crutch or let them hinder its story or characters.

Headhunters stars Aksel Hennie as Roger Brown, our protagonist and narrator. He is 5’6” tall and insecure, so he overcompensates. He lives in house he cannot afford and does not like, but he thinks his statuesque wife, Diana, likes it so he goes along. He is aware that she is out of his league so he goes out of his way to provide her with a luxurious lifestyle that, though he is a successful corporate headhunter, is beyond his means. To cover these expenses, Roger moonlights as an art thief. He uses his day job to find new targets for his side job. One such potential client for Roger’s headhunting job, and his art thief job, is Clas Greve, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (now of Game of Thrones fame). Clas has inherited a painting believed to have been stolen by Nazis during WWII. To Roger it sounds like the payday of his dreams; one so potentially lucrative he may never have to steal art again. It sounds too good to be true, and it is. After Roger steals the painting he finds himself in over his head in a dreadful mess.

At this point Headhunters becomes an intense cat and mouse chase. No matter where Roger runs or hides, even if he changes vehicles and clothes, Clas is always in pursuit; Clas becomes like the Terminator. Coster-Waldau plays Clas as an intelligent, crafty, and believable villain. He is relentless, cold, and charismatic.  The chase takes on an almost absurd nature, but Roger is aware of the absurdity all the while, so we as the audience believe what we are seeing. There are no elaborate, unnecessary stunts just for the sake spectacle. When Headhunters does indulge in a thriller convention like a car chase, it puts Roger in an old, slow moving tractor. The brilliance of this chase is that it is creative but believable (Roger was hiding out in a barn). Everything in this film feels plausible. This film takes place firmly in the real world, making it effectively engaging and suspenseful.

The film does its best to begin Roger as an unlikable protagonist, but then, thanks to a smart script and Hennie’s performance, does a great job turning our sympathy towards him. Contrary to what studio executives and screenwriting professors espouse, characters don’t have to be likable, they just have to be interesting. At his worst, Roger is a very interesting, complex character; he is also an intelligent one making him a match for Clas and making the film very entertaining. Even characters we don’t spend much time with feel like fully realized people.

Headhunters combines the suspense of corporate espionage films like Michael Clayton or The Firm with the violent intensity of The Terminator. With its combination of a shadowy conspiracy and crime elements, Headhunters also has the feel of a Film Noir. This movie is well paced, grabbing you and never letting go until it’s over. There is a great, effective score adding to the tension and mystery of the film. It gets quite intense and bloody, but is also darkly funny. While this isn’t technically a horror movie, it is still loaded with shocks, thrills, and even scares. Most of all, it is a thoroughly satisfying film that you can watch this Shocktober, especially if you don't like horror movies.