‘THE HUNT’ Review

Rich, liberal elites hunting normal, working-class conservatives. For sport. Hard to believe a film put out by a major studio could be considered controversial. But five months after The Hunt was shelved, was it worth the wait?

Twelve strangers wake up in a field, all with bridles in their mouths. In the middle of the field is a giant box. Supplied with a crowbar the box contains a small cache of guns and ammo. As soon as the strangers are armed the shooting begins. They’ve been chosen for The Hunt. But the Hunters didn’t count on Crystal (Betty Gilpin) and she’s going to use that to her advantage.

Owing a good amount to Richard Connell’s short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, The Hunt may be the most comedic take on the classic story. The humor, for me, came from the violence. The Hunt is gleefully gory. People are shot with bullets and arrows. Everyone is tossing grenades and heads are splitting like ripe melons. Betty Gilpin is outstanding as the resourceful and tough Crystal. It’s always nice to see Ethan Suplee pop up in a project. His character, Gary (he even has a podcast), delivers exposition in an entertaining way. I do wish that Glenn Howerton’s character had been given more to do. Director Craig Zobel (Compliance, Z For Zachariah) proves he can do action set pieces well. Writers Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse offers a take on a topic that I haven’t seen addressed in a lot of films. To divulge that would be spoilers, though.

While I did laugh quite a bit, the jokes were pedestrian. An important rule in comedy is always punch up. If you’re going to call out liberals or joke about them there better be a point. Or you better go for broke. The only film from Blumhouse that had anything meaningful to say about white liberals was GET OUT. The origin of The Hunt and Manorgate is interesting but is not explored nearly enough. Not saying I wanted them to reverse engineer the reveal but more background would have benefited.

Which brings me to the controversy that followed this film. After the mass shootings last August in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH certain politicians and members of the media turned to the favorite scapegoat, entertainment. Blaming violent movies and accusing this film as trying to divide the country. Universal Pictures pulled the film, also out of respect for the victims of those shootings. The recent promotion has been leaning into the controversy. But is it as upsetting as anyone expected? Of course not. I understand the studio’s reasoning behind pulling it. And maybe with the current climate of theaters maybe people will go out for one last gasp before new releases dry up. Or it will fade into obscurity.

The Score
Story:2.5 stars
Character: 3 stars
Execution: 3 stars
Movie: 2.5 stars

Pros: funny, gory, short run time
Cons: the jokes are tepid
Bottom Line: THE HUNT is a fun update on a familiar story but fails to say anything profound.