''The Hunter,'' filmed in Tasmania, has the faintly surreal look
peculiar to Australian movies in which nature pulses with a
mysterious, primordial shimmer. Adapted from Julia Leigh's novel
and directed by Daniel Nettheim from a screenplay by Alice
Addison, the film tells the story of a lone hunter from another
continent searching for a creature that may not exist in an old-
growth forest largely untouched by humans.  There are moments,
as the hunter wanders through the wilderness, when you wonder if
a dinosaur might appear.  His elusive prey is the Tasmanian
tiger, a predator and a relative of the wolf that is thought to
have been extinct since 1936, when the last specimen died in
captivity. Vintage footage of the creature, with its striped fur
and doglike face, is seen early in the movie.  If the Tasmanian
tiger is a ready-made symbol that invites all sorts of grandiose
interpretation, ''The Hunter'' admirably refrains from pushing
its implications to the forefront. They are embedded in the
story and in the