Reviewing Angelwood Studios' "Bear Hunting"

By Jesse Anderson

Offiical poster for Bear Hunting, Angelwood Studios (2024).

Last week, Angelwood Studios premiered their new film, Bear Hunting, which follows the bereaved Calista as she hunts the killer of her best friend, Juliette. Angelwood Studios is a student film production group that was established only last year. Their first short film, Ridge Grave Girls, was selected for screening at the Glasgow Short Film Festival in March. In the Q&A following the Bear Hunting screening, the students running Angelwood Studios discussed the obstacles that student film-makers face, from St Andrews’ unruly weather to scheduling clashes. In light of this, Bear Hunting is an inspirational example of the dedication of Angelwood Studios to their creative cause. As part of a queer and feminist film studio, writer Junko Karo looked to explore themes of female rage and grief in the context of a crime-drama steeped in romance and friendship. Original music by Aldwin Li and Abena Oppon further elevates the film: the soundtrack is striking, powerfully expressive, and emotive, a key driver in the Bear Hunting’s transformative grief and rage.  

Well-timed and pervasively haunting, the original music score is an impressive feat in a film produced on a student budget. The opening shot, in which Calista looks up to a dark sky, is accentuated by tentative, and at points discordant, music. It puts the viewer on edge, easing them into the wintry Bear Hunting universe. The music separates Bear Hunting from any kind of thriller label because it imbues a deeper fear and suspicion - we are not in for cheap thrills. There is a curiosity and trepidation in the melodies, keeping the viewer uneasy. A sense of the viewer’s own involvement in the tracking of Juliette’s murderer is compounded by Calista’s voiceover and intimate shots.  

Filmed in a frosty-looking St Andrews, the cinematography is dark and gloomy. Bare and spindly trees blend into grey skies; scenes in Aikman’s basement, where Calista finds polaroid clues, are equally brooding. These dark scenes are contrasted with scenes in Calista’s bedroom, where she is visited by the ghost of Juliette. The friendship between Calista and Juliette brightens the room. Joanne Yau, costume designer, creates a vivid yet discordant outfit for Juliette’s ghost, which is youthful and slightly uncanny. Her buoyant dress, pearly shawl, and red ribbon are juxtaposed with Calista’s dark outfits and the even darker atmosphere of the film. The costume staples in the film lend a sense of realism. Hunter, who confesses to Calista that he killed Juliette, drapes himself in a fur-lined jacket, confirming his title of ‘bear’ to which he is referred to by Calista throughout the film. The draping of the jacket is reminiscent of depictions of Herakles, cloaked in lion’s fur, and aligns Hunter, ‘the bear’, with a kind of stereotypical, brutish masculinity.  

Bear Hunting is ‘loosely inspired’ by the myth of Artemis and Callisto, which explains both the kiss shared between Juliette (nicknamed ‘Art’ ) and Calisto as well as the lack of real-world consequences for murder. Threads of mythology and astrology which run through the film build a sense of otherworldliness, a mysticism which takes the familiar space of St Andrews and uses it as staging for a tale of love and revenge.  

The confrontational scenes between Calista and Hunter are tense. Quick dialogue and uncomfortable camera angles heighten the tension between the pair. The Dutch angle which the filmmakers have chosen in these scenes create disorientation and fear, perhaps even the feeling of lacking foundation. The physical difference between Calista and Hunter is subtly emphasised, coming to a climax in the final scene. Bear Hunting ends with Calista’s murder of Hunter. She ruthlessly drugs him with the Rohypnol he had presumably drugged Juliette with and takes him down as he walks home in the evening. The choreography of the final scene is well executed: the struggle on the ground underscores the physicality of the film. Successfully strangling Hunter, Calista dons his jacket, thus completing her metaphorical transformation into the bear.

Rage is not exactly the word to describe Calista’s behaviour in the film. Her biggest obstacle in seeking her vengeance is figuring out who killed Juliette, which she overcomes relatively quickly. Her response at the moment of Hunter’s confession is not explosive, but determined. Calista is a character who quietly calculates her vengeance, driven by grief more than rage. Even Hunter’s murder is achieved relatively subtly. She takes him by surprise - very efficiently. The viewer almost wants to see her explode into a murderous fury to expose Hunter’s self-victimisation to himself before dragging out his death. Perhaps this is just not within Calista’s character. Instead, having killed Hunter, she sits beside him swathed in the bear’s fur, victorious.  

Calista’s crine, considering that she left evidence of his crime to the police, does seem a little counterintuitive. Though it expresses the climax of her grief, the viewer might wonder why Calista would want to point the finger at somebody she was about to murder - unless leaving the evidence with the police was an act of cleansing she felt she needed to do before killing Hunter. There are a couple of open endings within the film, such as the kiss between Juliette and Calista, which are perhaps intentionally left up to interpretation to add to the film’s tension. Ultimately, the viewer is left with a yearning to see more, to know more, to hear more. In Bear Hunting, Angelwood Studios has proven their potential for new and exciting film-making, challenging themselves with a film that pushes the boundaries of student film-making. Their next film, Watching the Boys, will premier next semester, and will certainly not be one to miss.  

With special thanks to Angelwood Studios for their invitation to review the premiere of Bear Hunting.