The Hunt

Zobel’s film grapples directly with the political spectrum and uses everything we love and hate about each other as fodder for humor and horror.

At some point or another, you will be offended by The Hunt. But see it anyway, confident in the certainty that other people — people you don’t agree with, people you don’t like — will be offended, too.

The Hunt is a smart satire that uses genre tropes to explore volatile social issues.

It’s a film that feels like it was designed to rile everyone up, but it ultimately has nothing to say about anything.

The movie’s mock-jaundiced attitude toward social media is itself satirical, and there’s a germ of a funny idea about how principled liberals can get entangled in pointless social media battles and infighting. But it’s eclipsed by an unavoidably moneyed perspective that presumes privileged people are inherently liberal, rather than attacking the hypocrisy of rich liberals in particular.

No matter, after much sound and fury the movie is more of a molehill than a mountain. Betty Gilpin deserves better and so do we.

There simply aren’t enough synonyms for “loathsome” to do the new movie The Hunt justice. Perhaps if we expand into other languages. C’est détestable! È ripugnante!

Movie was great, I really don’t understand the angry reviews. Y’all look corny and washed up. Get a life.

A better than average film with some comedic scenes and some genuine laughs. Some bizarre acting, but it adds to the weirdness of the e film. Ultimately though, it’s been done before, and doesn’t really add anything. I’d probably watch it again if I was bored!

There are obvious comparisons here with The Purge (2013). I enjoyed it way more than I was expecting but it still wasn’t perfect by a long shot. The story had so many moments where I couldn’t predict what was happening and I loved it, for example you don’t realise who the lead character is until surprisingly far into the film. I did love the lead character, who was very charismatic and interesting. I honestly didn’t understand the morals or the message but I didn’t care. Maybe it didn’t have any but it certainly felt like it was trying to say something. The final fight goes on a bit too long and degrades into farce more than the rest of the film. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? Probably. The less you know before watching, the better.

So I'm a Lindelof defender. I love Prometheus and the Watchmen TV show. Craig Zobel's 'Compliance' is fantastic. But uh, this ****. The political satire is not clever beyond "Trump voters are redneck conspiracy theorists, and Liberal elites are hypocrites who care too much about being PC". It's 14yo Family Guy **** If you want genre thrills with a smarter sense of subtext watch the Invisible Man. If you've read the premise to this movie you've pretty much seen the movie. It makes stabs at a deeper message - "People become the monsters we imagine them to be" but I doubt there is much insight anyone will get from this. It's a waste of time.

The Hunt fails to ever get past its one-dimensional jabs and make an actual point. Sure, Betty Gilpin gives a great performance as Crystal and the shocking and abrupt violence can be entertaining, but The Hunt does its best to repeatedly pull you out of your enjoyment. Consistent groan inducing jokes and twists that ultimately lead nowhere do not help its cause. By the end of its runtime, The Hunt has forgotten what it set out to do and quickly cuts to black before you can start questioning it.