The Hunt

It's Battle Royal, meets Hunger Games meets Dodgeball meets Qanon.

I'm not sure how seriously anyone should take this film, the comedy cartoon violence is closer to Tex Avery than Texas Chainsaw massacre.

The underpaying theme of America's divided social class, conspiracy theory nut jobs and elitist middle class aren't really explored any any significant depth and perhaps that's the point.

Escapist violence with a sick sense of humour. Watchable nonsense.

Much more enjoyable than expected.

The beginning of it is funny enough, but it is the ensuing few scenes which are riotously HILARIOUS and make it worth watching- I literally laughed until I cried.

Toward the middle of the film, there is a wide gap where the laugh-out-loud moments are slowed and further and further apart, but still bring a smile or giggle here and there. The ending while good, is overshadowed by a preceding fight scene that is one for the books. It was really, really well done.

The best part of the entire movie though, and what makes it stand out, is that if a person watching has more than two brain cells, the dialogue is spot-on close-to-perfect in mocking BOTH SIDES of the political divide. And here, is what I think people are missing: NEITHER side is depicted as being 'better' than the other. Or worse. It has fun at the expense of everyone and it doesn't do it in any overtly mean way, but in a way where we can nod and nod and nod and laugh ... at ourselves ... no matter who we are or where we stand.

Lastly, a horror film - it is not. Somewhat gory, yes. A "horror" film? no.

8.6/10

It took me a while to watch this based on reviews and all the political nonsense, but I am so happy I changed my mind. One of the most entertaining movies I've seen in the last year. While there are political undertones and references, they're not over played and it adds to the entertainment. I highly recommend this movie. It's good for some laughs, and isn't light on the action.

If there's one horror/thriller premise that already got turned into plenty of movies, it's the "hunting humans for fun/sports" idea. There are far too many titles to list, but some of my personal favorites include the 1932 original "The Most Dangerous Game", but also "Blood Camp Thatcher", "Deadly Prey", "The Woman Hunt" and "Surviving the Game". There's always room for anther favorite, though. In fact, there's even room for another twenty favorites, as long as they deliver suspense, gore, fresh & inventive killings and insane characters. Craig Zobel's "The Hunt" is definitely a new favorite!

This film's strongest assets are the eccentric but strong female lead, versus the overall "worthlessness" of the rest of the characters. By this I mean that literally everyone can die at any given moment - and many of them will - regardless of how significant or insignificant their roles have been up until then. I love that. The strong female lead speaks for itself. The woman is quite petrifying, unpredictable, not very eloquent, nihilistic, and deadlier than a whole army of vengeful liberal democrats with guns. She's also quite weird, since she shamelessly pees in front of people and narrates disturbing variants of classic children's stories.

Admittedly, I found the political "satire" very exaggerated and far over the top. Many taboo subjects, like refugees and the free possession of firearms, are inevitably included and the views of both "obnoxious" democrats and "imbecilic" republicans are shoved down our throats, only to conclude that all extremist opinions are deplorable. Yeah, fine, please blow away some more people Mrs. Gilpin! The obvious thing to enjoy here is the extreme violence, the gore and Betty's stoic face.

Going into this movie, I thought it was going to be a "Hunger Games" kind of deal. It turned out to be a completely different movie. This is basically a political satire that makes fun of all sides. Whether you're conservative or liberal, this movie will take jabs at you.

While the plot was unexpected, I ended up enjoying the story. The humor is intentionally bizarre, and you just laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Including the parts where they're making fun of you, the audience. The thriller part of the movie gets a bit lost, but is still there. The only thing I'll say is don't watch if you get offended easily.