Project Wolf Hunting puts western action cinema to shame

Take a helping of Con Air, throw in some From Dusk Till Dawn, and mix it up with the Resident Evil video games, and you’re somewhere in the ballpark of this batshit insane roller-coaster from South Korea.

Set on a cargo ship somewhere in the international waters between China and Korea, Project Wolf Hunting is one of the most visceral and intense action films in recent memory. It wrings out every inch of its environment, crafting horrific and electrifying set pieces at every turn. Ferociously inventive and committed to spectacle, it’s the kind of filmmaking that makes you wonder why we put with anything less.

It’s also the type of genre film where everyone has come out to play. The intensely charismatic cast, including Seo In-guk, Jang Dong-yoon, Park Ho-san, and Sung Dong-il, know precisely what kind of movie they’re in. While no single stretch of scenery is safe from chewing, nobody plays the material like it’s a joke. Which makes it that much more effective when things go from bad to worse to straight-up nightmarish.

Arguably, it’s a bit too long and gets exhausting toward the end. Director and screenwriter Kim Hong-sun throws everything into his magnum opus, and sometimes too much of a good thing is still too much. But even at its most opulent, Project Wolf Hunting is nothing short of thrilling. It’s rare for an action film to surprise anymore, and I’d be lying if I said that I could tell where Hong-sun’s epic would go at any given minute.

But if you’re looking for an action film that’s something completely different from the tedium offered elsewhere, Project Wolf Hunting is the jolt of electricity you’re looking for. You won’t see anything like this on the big screen elsewhere.