the audience applauded

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Exploitation - that it is, but director Jorge Grau tells it in a dramatically sensible manner, slowly building up to what is unavoidable in these films - a brute finale. Still, with plenty to think (and shudder) about afterward.The portrayal of both sides of the same coin that is society - a woman and her family and a poor family and a few befriended criminals - begins with the main characters together in the same room, a courtroom. The woman is a lawyer defending a criminal with compassion, and two misfit type guys are in the crowd making jokes amongst themselves. After her elaborate plea, the camera zooms out slowly while the judges, lawyers and audience leave the room - finally it is pretty much empty... The lawyer then drives home, followed by the duo, who waited outside for her. They steal her car when she stops to buy groceries and find out she has a chalet on a large hunting ground. They intend to rob the place, but things go horribly wrong, and that is only the beginning...There are all kinds of sidelines going on (the innocent brother of the main criminal being innocent but is incarcerated, the son of the lawyer couple who reads comics about a masked hero and is fascinated by dad's shotgun, the lawyer who at first intends to forgive the assailant) that make this much richer and deeper than your average revenge / home invasion flick, making this a unique feat - though still you'll have to be able to stomach some pretty nasty violent actions.A big 8 out of 10, maybe more in the future.

Methodical Spanish thriller from Grau, (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) takes the time to develop character and motivation of both villains and protagonist before an extremely graphic finale.A very young Assumpta Serna is a criminal defense attorney who is confronted not only by the mother of her husband's killers, but by the vengeful mother of her murdered husband as well. Midway through the proceedings, she asserts that she doesn't want to live in a world where the only rule is the code of the hunt.The setup could have easily been one for typical revenge fare, but this does not take the simple path of having her immediately hardened by misfortune and bent on vengeance. Instead, she tries to return to normalcy at every turn, until finally forced to do otherwise. Grau has some interesting shots during the initial home invasion, as well as the final confrontation and breaks up the interim routine by showing the impossibility of regular life.This is a better film of the genre, in that it takes a more even tone and pace than is typical and does not provide simplistic fan-baiting violence every 15 min. Grau fulfills viewer expectations, but not in the most expected manner.

"Code of Hunt" is an extremely rare Spanish thriller that left me disturbed and speechless.This is one of the hardest to come by titles that existed in only two video releases,one Spanish(it's country of origin)and the other Greek.Both are now long deleted many years ago and both are ultra-rare.A famous Spanish actress Assumpta Serna plays Adela,a defender of poor criminals.Unfortunately her latest defendants steal her car and find the keys to her country villa.During the robbery her husband is killed and three of the criminals run away.The youngest criminal(who is the brother of one of the villains)is captured by the police and dies in prison.For Adela this is the beginning of pure nightmare..."Code of Hunt" is a very gritty and bleak film that has to be seen to be believed.The acting is excellent and the violence is ugly and brutal.The climax is incredibly vicious and sadistic in its cold depiction of sexual violence and revenge.This little gem seems to be forgotten by fans of European cult cinema,but if you get a copy treasure it.10 out of 10.

This slow-paced crime thriller was seen by some critics as a plea by Jordi Grau in favour of the death penalty. He categorically denies that.Generally this film is uncomfortable to watch. In many ways the outcome is predictable, as is the ordeal Ms Serna's character is going through, but the predictability and the slow pace somehow make it worse. It is like falling out of an airplane at ten thousand feet without a parachute. You know what is going to happen and the anticipation of the inevitable gruesome outcome makes you wish that it is over sooner rather than later.Interestingly, the film has much stronger female than male characters, an unusual attribute for movies (not counting TV movies) of this genre. The film centers around the lawyer played by Assumpta Serna, and she amicable pulls off the performance required to hold everything together.