The Biggest Mystery in This Serial Killer Thriller Is Why Henry Cavill Agreed To Do It

Henry Cavill has had mixed success at transferring the worldwide stardom he gained from playing Superman in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with the 2013 release of Man of Steel, to the rest of his career. The most inexplicable career decision that Cavill has made over the past decade involves his starring role in the 2018 action thriller film Night Hunter, in which he plays Walter Marshall, a Minnesota police detective on the hunt for a serial killer who targets young women.

Besides Cavill, the disarmingly impressive cast of Night Hunter includes Alexandra Daddario, Nathan Fillion, Ben Kingsley, and Stanley Tucci. However, while all the main roles in Night Hunter are occupied by talented performers, none of the characters who appear in the film are believable or interesting. The recent streaming success of Night Hunter highlights how much streaming has become a repository for forgotten flops with big-name stars.

Indeed, as David Corenswet’s triumphant debut as Superman in the new Superman reboot has brought renewed attention to Cavill’s polarizing tenure as Superman, there’s a bittersweet irony in how Cavill is also experiencing a resurgence of popularity for the previously ignored Night Hunter, which is undoubtedly the worst film he has ever starred in.

Henry Cavill Can't Save 'Night Hunter'

Contrived, convoluted, and illogical, Night Hunter is a serial killer thriller that assembles every conceivable element within the well-worn genre in the desperate hope that its various recycled parts will congeal into compelling entertainment. However, the continual and shameless narrative and stylistic references to genre vanguards like Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs only highlight how woefully inferior Night Hunter is in comparison.

While Night Hunter purportedly attempts to meaningfully explore the serial-killer mindset, the warped psychological profile of the film’s serial killer, or in this case, twin killers, doesn’t hold any surprises for longtime followers of the genre. The most compelling aspect of Night Hunter is that it provides definitive evidence that otherwise good actors and actresses are helpless to overcome implausible characterizations and dialogue. However, that doesn’t mean that Night Hunter star Henry Cavill and the rest of the film’s impressive cast, led by Ben Kingsley, are entirely blameless for this mess.

Indeed, as Cavill’s character, Walter Marshall, is introduced in Night Hunter as a Minnesota police detective with Midwestern family ties, why does Marshall speak with Cavill’s deep British accent throughout the film? Kingsley’s character, Michael Cooper, is a former judge turned vigilante who teams with his adopted teenage daughter to ensnare child sexual predators, whom they then castrate. After the adopted daughter is kidnapped, a tracking signal conveniently leads Marshall to a secluded mansion, where various kidnapped young women are found, along with their supposed captor, a schizophrenia-afflicted young man named Simon Stulls, whom Marshall believes is a longtime serial killer of young women.

The drooling, hysterical, jittery Simon is emblematic of how Night Hunter employs the behavior and personalities of its characters strictly as plot devices. In contrast to the eerily convincing 1986 serial killer film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which takes an almost documentary approach in presenting a detailed psychological case study of its titular character, who is all the more frightening because he appears as a real person, the comically depraved Simon is a distinctly derivative character whose only purpose is to appear in an utterly ludicrous film like Night Hunter.

The Critics Are Right about 'Night Hunter'

Night Hunter is the kind of travesty that inspires a deep sense of morbid curiosity regarding how the film got made, and especially how and why star Henry Cavill and the rest of the film’s impressive cast became involved with this project. Night Hunter was initially released by DirecTV on video on demand before receiving a limited theatrical release at the international box office, where it grossed just over $1 million. At this point, Night Hunter receded into obscurity, as indeed Night Hunter had been virtually forgotten prior to its recent rebirth on streaming, where Night Hunter presently ranks as one of the most viewed titles on the Paramount+ platform.

Night Hunter presently holds a 14% Rotten Tomatoes rating, the lowest rating for any of Cavill’s feature-starring vehicles, followed by the 28% rating for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Moreover, Night Hunter represents a baffling anomaly in Cavill’s career, as while Cavill has had several failures in his career, he’s never starred in another film as manifestly incompetent as Night Hunter, which marks the feature directorial debut of David Raymond, who has never directed another feature since Night Hunter.

Cavill Is at a Career Crossroads

The recent wave of publicity that’s been generated by the streaming success of Night Hunter is emblematic of the fact that none of Henry Cavill’s non-DCEU roles have engaged the public consciousness nearly as much as did his portrayal of Superman, which in turn seems to have entered an era of increasing irrelevance, given the success of the Superman reboot. However, as David Corenswet has now firmly made the role of Superman his own, this could represent a blessing for Cavill, who, after displaying his versatility in a wide range of roles in the past decade, is now free to further distinguish himself as an actor without being mercilessly identified with the role of Superman.

Indeed, Cavill’s casting in the upcoming Highlander reboot would have been much less acceptable to audiences a decade ago, when Cavill’s big-screen persona was still inextricably attached to the DCEU. While Christopher Reeve was unable to transcend the role of Superman with his other feature-starring vehicles, Cavill has avoided this typecasting by embracing variety and working with talented directors, most notably Guy Ritchie, who most recently directed Cavill in the 2024 war film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and who is set to reunite with Cavill in the upcoming action thriller film In the Grey. As an actor and a star, Cavill has proven himself to be somewhat of a decathlete over the past decade, and while Cavill hasn’t won any gold medals, he competes well in every event.