Hyena is a thriller best served cold.
Gerard Johnson, well known in the horror field due to his excellent experimental zombie romp Tony (2009), creates a stylish and merciless urban hell that we are allowed to explore thanks to Michael Logan, the dirtiest cop in town.
It's been 20 years since David Fincher’s Seven, and the contemporary thriller genre still follows the same pattern: formal experimentation. The stories in many cases are similar, but the look is constantly evolving. Drive and The Sweeney, films conceptually related to Hyena, are good examples. The real focus of interest, therefore, lies not in the plot but in the execution (no pun intended) of the film. Imagine those atmospheres where night club neon signs have become a reinterpretation of the genre’s classic chiaroscuro.
Hyena presents a hard-boiled cop, who is as ultraviolent as he’s corrupt. Against the backdrop of drug trafficking in London, Johnson describes brilliantly and with an absolute (and gratifying) absence of any ethical and moral discourse, the highest spheres of the law and the darkest corners of the underworld. After The Wire, nothing surprises us and we all think of the chain of command as a natural ecosystem in which whoever doesn’t eat the enemy ends up being devoured. In this world, the scavenger becomes the last one standing, feeding on the detritus scattered on the battlefield.
The concept for Hyena was born about 10 years ago when Johnson’s cousin, Peter Fernando [the actor who plays Michael] met a very peculiar guy at a party. He was one of those people who could spend all night partying and go to work at 8 in the morning as usual. Days later, they found out through the guy’s girlfriend that he was a secret policeman. After getting to know him better, he told Johnson different stories of corruption within the police, having spent decades in the business. Meeting this man was the first incentive for writing Hyena’s script, so it’s no surprise that it turned out to be an extraordinary and gritty slice-of-life film.
Sitges Festival Publications’ Team & Mike Hostench (Deputy Director – Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia)