Visual Parallels: Take Shelter + The Hunt

Take Shelter and The Hunt don't have much in common at the first glance. But when you start looking closely similarities arise - both stories center around a man, who despite having a family and people who love him, is utterly alone with his problems. In case of Curtis, the hero of Take Shelter, he is suspecting that he is becoming mentally ill. Lucas, the protagonist of The Hunt, on the other hand has been accused of molesting a little girl in his village.

While Curtis's problem is internal and Lucas's external, the directors of these two films chose to reflect their growing issues and sense of loneliness, doom and fear in the nature that surrounds both men. Curtis sees the gathering storm in the sky, only he seems to see, several times in the movie. Lucas sees frightened, lonely animal during the hunt - much like himself, struggling to survive, alone in the wild.

Both men have children and animals in their lives - first one mirroring the confusion (Curtis's daughter is deaf, Lucas's alleged victim is odd and detached from everyone), the second a connection to a being that also cannot voice their thoughts and truths and get people to understand them.

There are two crucial scenes in both films - the explosive moment where the protagonist stands up and wants everyone to hear what he has to say and the moment where someone close to him talks to the lead character and finally manages to help him.

Both films end with the symbolism coming together - with the storm being witnessed by Curtis's family who needs to acknowledge his illness and understand things won't be the same and Lucas almost being killed, like the animal during the hunt, realizing that his life from now on will be spent in fear and uncertainty.

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