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First-person storytelling has existed since the very dawn of cinema, but it’s only with the rise of video games that it became commonplace. Sure, there were first-person thrillers before the digital age, such as 1947’s Lady in the Lake, but the visceral thrills of looking through someone else’s eyes are much easier to accomplish when you aren’t hindered by bulky camera equipment and spatial limitations.

That’s why it makes sense that a self-professed “son of rock ‘n roll” who grew up on a steady diet of American action flicks and videogames would see the advent of tiny portable cameras as an opportunity to explore first-person filmmaking. This is what led to the FPS-inspired music videos for the Biting Elbow’s The Stampede and Bad Motherfucker, which were both directed by the Russian-born Illya Naishuller (also the band’s lead vocalist).

These hyper-violent music videos didn’t take long to go viral, and fans – including director Timur Bekmambetov and Samuel L. Jackson – were soon clamoring for more POV filmmaking shenanigans. Fast-forward a few years and Illya soon found himself directing his first feature film in the form of Hardcore Henry, a gritty sci-fi action flick about a cyborg amnesiac who must rescue his girlfriend from a super-powered evildoer.

With a production budget of $2 million – ridiculously low for an action film – Naishuller went about creating a new kind of underground genre flick, going so far as to film without permits and sharing the dual role of main character/cinematographer with 12 other crewmembers. The end result was an incredibly innovative feature that became all the rage at film festivals back in 2015. Unfortunately, the wide release wasn’t as successful, with the film quietly falling into home video obscurity after a botched marketing campaign.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

Action is really expensive to film, which is why you don’t see a ton of low-budget action flicks at indie festivals. It’s also incredibly dangerous if you don’t have an army of stunt performers and digital wizards to back up your special effects. With that in mind, the mere existence of Hardcore Henry is a guerilla filmmaking miracle, with the sheer amount of passion that went into crafting this insane piece of low-brow art making it easy to forgive an admittedly shallow script and a couple of rough edges.

And while the commitment to low budget exploitation filmmaking is admirable in and of itself, the most bonkers part is that it all comes together in the end to form a cohesive whole. It’s understandable that some audiences couldn’t get used to Hardcore Henry’s first-person shootouts and break-neck pace (which is probably why it isn’t talked about more), but viewers who grew up with FPS games are sure to appreciate its subjective charms. In fact, the POV element makes the action that much more believable even when there are obvious CGI enhancements, and there’s a certain sense of performative wonder once you realize that most of what you’re watching is happening almost exactly as it appears on-screen.

There are actually rumors of the crew being chased by angry cops during filming, as well as numerous stunt-related delays that extended production time into well over four months. And though I firmly believe that crewmembers should never be put at risk for the sake of a mere movie, I respect the hell out of the stunt team here for committing to such an insane labor of love.

This unusual amount of effort extends to the cast, from Danila Kozlovskiy’s memorably hammy comic-book villain to Sharlto Copley’s multi-faceted mentor figure inspired by non-player-characters in a videogame. Tim Roth is also excellent in his brief appearance as Henry’s father, giving our protagonist some heartwarming advice in a clever subversion of the classic “tough-guy dad” trope.

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR-ADJACENT?

Horror Adjacent – where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy!