REVIEW

Inflammatory and Ultraviolent ‘THE HUNT’ Triggers Both Sides of the Aisle

Name: The Hunt review
Item: The Hunt
Rating: 3.3
Author: Matt Oakes

By Matt Oakes · March 12, 2020

Inflammatory and Ultraviolent ‘THE HUNT’ Triggers Both Sides of the Aisle

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Originally scheduled for release in September of last year, Craig Zobel’s satirical modern spin on “The Most Dangerous Game” factored political divisions into the equation to decidedly contentious results. The Hunt became so controversial that its release was pulled indefinitely when the President (in a totally characteristic ego trip of a move) slammed the film, calling it “a tremendous disservice to our country” and threatening that “we’re going to be very tough with them.” Soon after, the death threats came flying.

In a time of stark political tribalism, Blumhouse could have foreseen that a movie about liberal elites hunting “deplorable” for sport might have irked a good many in the country but they’ve rarely shied away from button-pushing before. Throughout The Purge series, the idea of political identity remains a lasting thematic undercurrent, coming to the forefront in obvious fashion in The First Purge, which was marketed with a blatant “Make America Great Again” tip of the hat towards #45 and his followers. As the series continued, The Purge’s not-so-subtle take on socioeconomic division and class warfare came closer and closer to the surface, the series developing a notable social conscience against its lurid backdrop of legalized crime.
The Hunt movie still

Similarly, The Hunt is not subtle but it lacks anything really resembling a social conscience; more content to stand back and mock political tribalism than actively participate in it. As such, the screenplay from Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, who’ve previously paired up to deliver the outstanding HBO drama The Leftovers, does not lament the socio-political divide between peoples so much as use it for an opportunity for timely shlock. They don’t really take a side. They make fun of anyone for having a side at all. Though Trump’s claimed that The Hunt was designed to “inflame and cause chaos” by unfairly targeting the right, this is simply not the case, the gore-riddled thriller truly does lambast both sides of the aisle, poking fun at the smarm and moral inconsistencies of the “woke” left as well as the Fox News-watching, second-amendment-touting red hats they oppose.

Six months later, the president has all but forgotten about his The Hunt-based temper tantrum (the half-life on his attention span having abated some time ago) and, for their part, Universal has used the cancellation to drum up interest. But as The Interview proved in 2014, controversy does not necessarily translate to ticket sales. Broadly, the premise is indeed as simple as it sounds: liberal elites capture a dozen conservatives and proceed to hunt them one by one until they realize that their prey might be more competent than they expected. The cast, which includes Emma Roberts, Glenn Howerton, Macon Blair, Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin, and a Hilary Swank in rare ass-kicking form, is a gleeful assemblage of stragglers, their presence brightened by the fact that you never know when any one of them is going to bite the dust. The first act of the film shifts focus from one POV potential-survivor to the next, characters offered up as leads before they are cut down out of nowhere, the screenwriters playing their own little game of catch and release with the audience.

As purely a piece of filmmaking, Zobel’s latest lacks the strong tonal command of a piece like Compliance or, to a lesser degree, Z for Zachariah but his set-piece staging is notably strong, particularly in a hand-to-hand fight that takes place in a brightly-lit chef’s kitchen. Accented by grisly explosions of gore, The Hunt slaps of meaningless violence but I have to admit that I enjoyed the fact that Zobel and co. can shrug off the draw to stand on their Hollywood soapbox and “speak to the moment” and rather just deliver a ballsy, mean-spirited shoot-out. For all the bluster about The Hunt’s politics, it’s a movie with almost no moral compass at all, that actually is enjoyable in spite of its brusque pot-stirring, not because of it.

CONCLUSION: Once you scrape out all the politics, media chatter and controversy, ‘The Hunt’ is ultimately a pretty satisfy Battle Royale-adjacent horror-thriller hybrid. The finished product is imperfect no doubt but still entertaining in broad strokes with enough unexpected kills and fun characters to power its runtime even if its political commentary is no more sophisticated than the dug-in mudslinging of a Facebook comments thread.