Ever since the penning of Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game, the idea of hunting humans for sport has inspired countless books and movies, including 2020’s The Hunt. The premise of the film is that 12 strangers wake up in a clearing to find a large crate in the middle filled with weapons. They soon discover that they are being hunted and must do their best to avoid being killed. The film was co-written by Damon Lindelof, one of the creators of Lost and writer from HBO’s The Leftovers and Watchmen.
After being blown away by the Watchmen mini-series on HBO, I was disappointed by the writing of The Hunt. Before you get to know any of the twelve victims, nine of them are dead in the first 20 minutes. It takes another 10 minutes for the film to introduce the main protagonist, and at this point you are a third of the way through a 90-minute film. The twists in the plot are a bit predictable in the beginning, but there end up being so many that they begin to tire instead of surprise. The political satire that is written into the forefront of the film is poorly executed. The hunters are neoliberal elitists that have kidnapped far-right conspiracy theorists and online commentators they’ve deemed to be racist bigots and “deplorables.” All these characters, left or right, including the main protagonist, are one-dimensional stereotypes. This might be fine if the film was just a horror thriller meant to be gory and dumb, but because The Hunt tries to be a satire, it is ruined by the characters.
One of the things that set my hopes a bit high was seeing Glenn Howerton playing one of the hunters. After years of watching him play an egotistical sociopath on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I was confident he could play the part of a rich, entitled, people-hunting person. Sadly, we’re only treated to one scene in the opening of the film and a few lines here and there; otherwise he is mainly in the background. Additionally, the protagonist, Crystal (Betty Gilpin), feels like she was written by five people who had similar, yet noticeably different, ideas of who she was supposed to be. Because of that, there is virtually no depth to her character, which makes her hard to like.
Throughout the film there are bits and pieces of good filmmaking. The final action scene and a couple other scenes are enjoyable to watch, but where the film really falls apart is the story and the script. If you’re looking for a fun action thriller about people hunting people, or if you’re looking for a satire about the current political climate, you’ll find those need filled better somewhere other than The Hunt. I recommend checking out Lindelof’s work on television shows like the Watchmen mini-series or The Leftovers during this quarantine time. The Hunt isn’t worth the twenty dollars to watch on demand right now.
2.5/5 STARS