Danielle Solzman
The Hunt, the latest film from Blumhouse Productions, is the dark satire for our times as the film finally sees a theatrical release.
At the heart of The Hunt is a conspiracy theory surrounding Manorgate where the liberal elite are slaughtering deplorables. Those aren’t my words but that in which we hear spoken on screen. Much of the conspiracy theories surrounding the film feel rather realistic to how conservatives are talking today. Maybe not all conservatives but some of the folks you see on Reddit pages and YouTube, etc.
The gist of it is that twelve strangers wake up in a clearing and have no idea how they got there. All they know is that they were kidnapped. There’s a crate lying out in the open and much like the red button, somebody has to open it. Throughout the hunt, only Crystal (Betty Gilpin) manages to stay one step ahead of the game. If you’re asking what her secret is, I’m not going to be the one who tells you. You’ll just have to find out yourself.
The satire in this film is ripe for the picking. Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof’s hits everything on the money. When you live through the 2016 election and everything that came with it, it’s no surprise that a film like this would come along. There’s so much disinformation online you honestly don’t know whether or not it’s true. One can only hope that common sense will prevail in such instances. Anyway, both Cuse and Lindelof play around with these ideas for the betterment of the film. What if one of the conspiracies wasn’t true and there are people demanding that it is? When you get to the the heart of it, this is what The Hunt is really about. There’s a comment about hand sanitizer that might feel a bit too soon. Maybe it’s because you can hardly find it on the shelves in stores?!?
Was it worth it to delay the film? I don’t know. My personal thought is that there’s nothing here that’s super offensive. It is a satire after all! However, it could be that the bloody and gory violence might feel a bit too soon following various shootings, etc. Even though I personally didn’t find The Hunt to be offensive, I can also see how people would be uncomfortable. Also, those people are probably not the film’s target audience and likely wouldn’t be watching it anyway.
The Hunt is the suspenseful action thriller with just the right amount of comedy that may truly come to define the year.
DIRECTOR: Craig Zobel
SCREENWRITERS: Nick Cuse & Damon Lindelof
CAST: Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, and Hilary Swank
