As video technology became cheaper and cheaper, this made filmmaking more democratic, as many more aspiring artists could create flicks on a shoestring budget. Into this category falls 2013’s DIY horror effort The Brain Hunter.

In 2009, a series of mysterious deaths occurs in a US Midwestern location. They share one commonality: the victims’ brains went missing.

Years later, this menace appears to return. Dr. Von John (Paul McGillicuddy) comes over from the UK to investigate and solve the mystery.

Boy, that makes it sound like Brain Hunter comes with a coherent plot, doesn’t it? Abandon hope all ye who watch this comically awful movie.

Should I grade a movie with a budget of roughly $87 on a curve? Maybe, as it doesn’t seem fair to expect the same quality of a project like this that we would from a big Hollywood affair.

That said, anyone who wants to buy this Blu-ray doesn’t get to pay on a curve. It lists for $30, just the same as more expensive and polished films.

Even if the Blu-ray sold for $3, though, the prospective buyer would overpay. If anything worthwhile emerges from this unmitigated disaster, I can’t find it.

Okay, we do get to see a few attractive, buxom women. Thus ends the positive portion of this review.

As a movie, absolutely nothing about Hunter works. Virtually all aspects of what we view as competent filmmaking fail to manifest here.

The script becomes a major impediment, as the “story” makes little sense and proceeds in a clumsy and incoherent manner. Hunter jumps from one scenario to another with zero fluidity.

This means a narrative that never builds. Plot elements meander in search of purpose.

The editing doesn’t bring any clarity to matters either. Scenes tend to either run oddly long or end abruptly, and the entire project lacks flow or momentum.

Photography fails to frame matters well. Too often we see only parts of heads because the top of the screen lops off the tops of those noggins.

Across the board, the actors seem terrible. Just by random chance, you’d think at least one or two would boast at least minor competence, but each and every cast member proves wholly unconvincing as they vary from wooden to over the top.

Hunter can’t even spell correctly. On occasion, we see subtitles that intend to identify a “residence”.

Expect the text reads “residents”, and this happens more than once. Yikes.

And we also see a “news broadcast” that spells “bodies” as “bodys”. Even for a super-cheap movie, this lack of quality control surprises me.

I genuinely root for DIY indie flicks like this to succeed. Even with severe budgetary restrictions, a movie can prosper thanks to other attributes.

All of these fail and fail spectacularly. Outside of those hot women I mentioned, literally nothing about this cinematic atrocity succeeds.

The Brain Hunter appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Although I couldn’t find out what kind of equipment the filmmakers used, based on this highly problematic image, I must assume they shot on video and on cheap video to boot.

At times, the film brought reasonable delineation. However, most of the movie looked awfully soft and mushy, so positive sharpness became a rare attribute.

Both jagged edges and moiré effects popped up through the film. Video artifacts became a factor as well.

The palette of Hunter leaned toward dingy browns or greens. Perhaps the filmmakers went this way on purpose but it seems more likely that ugly colors stemmed from the low-quality equipment in use.

Blacks looked bland and inky, while shadows came across as too thick. Almost nothing about the movie’s visuals satisfied.

Don’t expect more from the film’s LPCM stereo soundtrack. Even if we ignore the fact that basic stereo for a movie from 2013 seems primitive, the end result came with plenty of problems.

At times, the movie showed reasonable stereo spread. However, localization became inconsistent.

Occasionally effects came from the logical spots, but the mix veered heavily and unnaturally to the left a lot of the time, and dialogue often went with it. This meant a soundscape that fared fine for some parts of the movie but that went kablooey far too often.

Audio quality also varied, though music sounded pretty rich and full. Effects tended to come across as a bit rough, though not on a consistent basis.

Dialogue varied from reasonably natural to shrill and edgy. Even given the constraints of the low-budget production, this became a weak mix, especially given that hard left shift that occurred so frequently.

The Making of The Brain Hunter spans four minutes, 17 seconds and shows a mix of footage and photos from the production. It becomes a brief but decent compilation.

The disc opens with ads for Take From Me and 31 Kills of Halloween. No trailer for Hunter appears here.

Even by the standards of a low-budget indie flick, The Brain Hunter flops badly. Poorly made and utterly incoherent, this becomes a laughably awful film. The Blu-ray comes with weak picture and audio as well as minor supplements. Hunter might be good for some yuks if you like unintentionally terrible cinema, but otherwise avoid it like the plague.