The Hunt: Film Review

Synopsis

Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing, with no memory of how they got there. They quickly realize that they are being hunted, one-by-one. In a deadly game of survival, only one will prevail: the hunters or the hunted.

Review

I have three words: Betty f*ckin' Gilpin. She is doing her thing in this movie (if you've seen GLOW, you know that she always does her thing). She gives a commanding central performance akin to Elisabeth Moss in The Invisible Man (2020, dir. Leigh Whannell) and Samara Weaving in Ready or Not (2019, dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett). As an aside, The Hunt is VERY reminiscent of Ready or Not (the latter has a more supernatural twist to it, but otherwise...). But, back to Betty. She is the glue that holds the entire film together. Every other character in the film is so extreme on their ideology, it's kind of annoying. Her character Crystal is the only character that isn't exactly put on one side or the other, and that's what I love about her character. She is given more space to have people side with and root for her character because she's not fully bogged down in the politics of it. In case you didn't know already (the studio has heavily leaned into this element in the marketing), this movie attempts to provide commentary on the political division in this country, though it's not subtle. Subtlety is the best way to go about satire in this modern era, and this movie is so over the top, you'd think it end with "... and I approve this message." Damn, the title of the movie was almost Red State vs. Blue State. If that ain't the definition of flagrance, I don't know what is. I think this film required a more deft hand in the director's chair (perhaps Jordan Peele???) to really knock it out of the park, satirically. With that said, this movie does a good job of trying not to take sides (it leans more to the right, though). At some point or another, everyone gets mocked and hit with the sh*t stick, so to speak (Paradise PD, anyone???). At the same time, the film tries to make it difficult for the audience to choose sides also. On one hand, the "elites" hunting the "deplorables" are wrong for doing that, but when faced with the realization that the "deplorables" are extreme racists and homophobes, a grain of salt is thrown into the situation. Now for the obligatory likes and dislikes... I thought that the film was paced very well. It's a tight 90 minutes long, so there's never really a dull moment, which I appreciated. The action scenes are fast paced, fun, and VERY gory (the first 20 minutes alone... Jesus Christ). Also, this film is shockingly hilarious. I mean, some of the humor does come at the expense of some of the characters' demises, but hey, funny is funny. Now, this movie is gonna hurt some people's feelings. I do not recommend this film if you don't like people talking about your beliefs, even though you might be just the person that need to see this film. I see this being a very divisive film because people aren't the best things in the world. We'll see.