Things I Liked About It:
-Typically I’m not a fan of people hunting movies. I’m just over the “Most Dangerous Game” story. The Hunt is not a bad film, it just doesn’t do enough to make you truly care about the characters to propel the story. With that being said, there are some great surprises with the characters that keep me watching.
-I’m continuously amazed by Betty Gilpin (Crystal). She is fantastic in GLOW and equally great in The Hunt. In both roles, she plays the opposite of what you’d expect and it works. I found myself rooting for her fairly early on and that was unexpected.
-I am not a fan of movies that force social commentary. Instead, I prefer ones that were made without the realization or are done intentionally and subtle (think Dawn of the Dead.) This film walks a line between satire and preachy and I honestly don’t know what to make of it.
-The action scenes are good and outside of the whole “hunting humans” storyline, there is nothing horror about this film. I’d group it more with The Running Man or The Condemned than something horror.
Things I Didn’t Like About It:
-The movie was moved from its original release date in 2019 due a mass shooting and then was released right before the COVID pandemic began (on March 13th, 2020) which ruined its box office. It was quickly released on VOD the following week.
Rating:
The plot was not what I was expecting. All the hype and controversary was a distraction that did the story no favors. Once you are able to put that behind you what is left is a low budget, but decent “hunting humans” type story sprinkled with some social commentary about the vilification of both sides of the political spectrum.
I didn’t have anything to say in regards to things I didn’t like about the film, because I didn’t dislike it. It was a very serviceable movie that entertained me but will quickly be forgotten. I’m not sure whether I can recommend this film based on its story alone, but I can recommend it if you are interesting in seeing what all the hype is about.
The film will probably not trigger anyone, so don’t believe all the press that you’ve read. I rate The Hunt as a three out of five.