The Hunt (Review)
The Hunt isn’t Nearly as Appalling or Controversial as it Hoped to Be.
The Hunt boasts that it was one of the most talked-about movies of 2020 that no one had ever seen. That’s probably because Donald Trump got his knickers in a twist when he heard the basic concept of the movie and took to Twitter to condemn it. The backlash pushed the film back to 2020 from its 2019 intended release date, which instantly got my attention since I love anything that gets the GOP in a huff. The Hunt certainly does take aim at the far right, but also targets the far left, liberal elitists, deplorables, conspiracy theorists, racists, and pretty much any other stereotype is can squeeze into its hour and a half run time. With so many targets, it adopts a “pray and spray” mentality and opens fire from start to finish. While not every shot hits its mark, enough landed to keep me solidly entertained from start to finish.
Hollywood is no stranger to movies about hunting humans and The Hunt doesn’t actually offer anything new to the sub-genre other than it’s polarized politics. The film centers around a group of elite insufferably “woke” billionaires (including Glenn Howerton, Reed Birney, and Amy Madigan) led by a woman known only as Athena (Hillary Swank). This group gathers up a pack of deplorables consisting of a far-right conspiracy podcaster (Ethan Suplee), a big game hunter (Justin Hartley), and the dreaded Florida Man (Sturgill Simpson). The deplorables wake in a field with a crate of weapons for them to choose from and once they make their picks, the hunt is on. It seems like a turkey shoot at first until the hunters discover that one of their prey is an actual badass (Betty Gilpin). As she turns the tables, the line between hunter and hunted becomes blurred.
It would be impossible to ignore the politics in The Hunt. However, I would say that it’s a movie that will both piss off and delight everyone in its depictions of the characters. There is quite simply not a single “likable” character in the bunch thanks to the conflicted feelings it evokes. Almost all of the “deplorables” are racist, homophobic, xenophobic, or just incredibly douchey in general, which makes it hard to feel any sort of sympathy for them, especially as they start to shoot their mouths off. The same can almost be said for the condescending, self-aggrandizing, “snowflakes” hunting them. At first, I thought I might actually be able to root for the hunters, but after getting to know them I don’t think I could last five minutes in a room with them (and I’m pretty liberal). Fortunately, Betty Gilpin’s Crystal doesn’t actually seem to give a damn about politics and keeps her views to herself. Her only concern is that people are trying to kill her, so she’s going to kill them first. Of course, it becomes clear that Crystal just might be the craziest of them all, but she tends to let her actions do the talking.
I would say that The Hunt is less of a horror movie and more of a dark (and I mean DARK) comedy. Sure, it has plenty of blood and gore as the cast slaughters one another from start to finish. Director Craig Zobel is much more focused on the absolute absurdity of the concept and the people that the characters are based on. A lot of people might think that The Hunt is the kind of film to take a firm stance in the snowflake vs deplorable battle going on in this country. Instead of picking aside, it seems to want both sides to know just how insufferable the extremists on both ends of the spectrum are. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that its a centralist film, but one that can’t help laughing at how fanatical the polarized tend to become in America today. Because of that, it was hard to find anyone to empathize with and I had to switch gears to just enjoying seeing both sides getting slaughtered. I will say that I loved how The Hunt established early on that no one was safe. It opens with a complete blood bath that I took a twisted sense of delight in watching unfold. From that point, it faltered but still managed to keep a dark sense of humor to it.
The beginning and the end of The Hunt are pretty great. It can’t keep that manic energy going for long though and the middle lulls a bit. In saying that, I wouldn’t have minded another 10 or 15 minutes to help establish some of the characters more just to give their inevitable deaths a bit more punch. The actors all do a lot with their characters, but I feel like they were missing the kinds of details that would have made The Hunt really great. It’s clear that writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof have the sense of humor necessary, but it’s hard not to feel like their creativity started to run out and they pushed hard to get to the final act as quickly as possible. I’d say that ⅔’s of The Hunt isn’t half bad at all. Heck, it’s actually a lot of fun (if you’re a sick puppy like I am). Unfortunately, it lacks the substance to deliver on the controversy it set for itself.
Don’t believe the hype when it comes to The Hunt. Just like pretty much everything else in America, the most outspoken sources on it have no idea what they’re talking about. Sure, it shines a light on some tough to swallow medicine for both liberals and conservatives, but certainly isn’t trying to insight some sort of civil war. It’s not a film taking aim at snowflakes or deplorables, but rather the insufferables that lurk on the far fringes of both sides. For that reason, I didn’t find myself offended when the leftists in it all turned out to be just as horrible as their prey. In fact, I found it pretty funny when they got their comeuppance at the hands of those that they looked down upon. If you like twisted dark comedies like The Belko Experiment and Severence, you’ll probably like The Hunt. Just try not to pay any attention to Blumhouse’s marketing campaign for it and you should be fine.
