Zo's Reviews: The Hunt

 


The Hunt is a horror...thriller...comedy...(?) directed by Craig Zobel and is about a group of 12 people who awaken in a field for a specific, violent, and bloody purpose...to be hunted by rich elitists with a bone to pick with them. The film stars Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank...and a bunch of random people who are there to do nothing more than get blown the f*ck up or bleed to death the end. OK, not really the end...I guess I may as well talk about the elephant in the room so...**SPOILER ALERT** from here on out.

This movie was and is one of the most controversial of the year. It got delayed a bunch due to the fact the media attacked it, stating that it was ultra violent and shouldn't exist. To be fair, it was about to come out during a time when there was quite a bit of gun violence going on in the country and would've been released in poor taste...? I dunno, I disagree with what the media were saying. I think the movie, and here's the spoiler part, is a satire of the current society in America that we live day in and day out. On the surface, it's about a bunch of elitist far-Left Liberals who hate Trump gathering up a bunch of Republicans and conspiracy nuts and hunting them. At first, I was thrown off by this. I mean, could they REALLY be making a movie about hunting conservatives?! And then as the film wore on...I noticed they were making fun of everyone. Yes, folks, this film is a satire. It makes fun of the far-Left, and it makes fun of the far-Right. And what do we get in the end? Well...let's dive deeper now that we've gotten the elephant in the room out of the way...

The plot itself runs at a breakneck pace, with the killing happening almost right out of the gate. There's little to no character development aside from that of our hero Crystal (Betty Gilpin) and our villain Athena (Hilary Swank). But in a movie like this, who really cares? The characters are just meat meant for one thing...glorious gory deaths. People die, a lot, in this movie, and in increasingly unrealistic ways. The violence and gore are so over the top absurd, that it's comical. This film, and its characters, are wacky and strange and just...so far out there...that I could barely take anything I saw seriously.

Technically speaking, it's filmed competently. The acting is pretty good, particularly from Athena's group of elitists (I don't really know what else to call them) who were laugh out loud ridiculous. Betty Gilpin, who I never knew I wanted more from, is freakin' amazing in this movie. She's a badass hero, kicking ass, taking names, and slitting throats (particularly that of Dennis from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia...aka Glenn Howerton...don't get attached to him). The action choreography is pretty good, especially in the finale between Crystal and Athena. The jokes come hard and fast as well.

In the end we get a fast and entertaining film that takes satire to a whole new level. Everything is absurd and way WAY out there that it's hard to take this seriously. I was thoroughly entertained and I think a movie like this is something movie-goers need right now as we slowly see cinemas start to re-open. The Hunt is on VOD and digital right now, check it out.

FINAL SCORE: B

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