Deplorable! A group of righteous liberals accidentally reveal their plans to capture and kill 12 people on a manor in Vermont. The public is outraged. Right wing believers rip apart the thread, prompting revenge from the left wingers. People that participated in the attack are captured from all over the nation, mainly from the southern states. They’re drugged, knocked out, and loaded into the plane for the game to begin. 

The Hunt, directed by Craig Zobel, is a comedy-filled thriller that emphasizes the worst parts of each political party. Those who can handle immense gore can appreciate the dark humor associated with some pretty controversial scenes. 

Speaking of controversy, the movie was originally planned to be released in 2019, but the Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas shootings risked scrutiny. The tragic events had a death toll of 31 innocent people. It seemed inappropriate to release a movie with such a strong depiction of guns amidst a time of mourning, so the date was moved to the spring of 2020. 

Furthermore, avid readers may notice some strikingly similar details to the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” In which, the hunter, Rainsford, thinks animals like elephants and tigers are too unintelligent to hunt, so he hunts people instead. Elaborate traps are set all around the island adding a little twist. 

One of the characters I grew fondly of just so happened to be the main character. She’s a mixture of bat-crazy and extremely observant. Played by Betty Gilpin, Crystal is an ex-army personnel equipped to whip the hunters’ butts. Rifles? Pistols? Bows and arrows? That’s nothing. She’s memorized how much a pack of cigarettes costs in each state, you have to throw something really out-of-this-world weird at her.

In contrast, I think the movie had a huge downfall when it came to the backgrounds of the characters. Where did they all come from? How did the idea of killing people even come about? Details similar to this were so briefly touched upon that the movie was basically just people killing people. Unfortunately, you can only throw so much blood and guts at the screen before it’s too much.