Review — The Hunt 2020

The Hunt takes a concept we’ve seen a fair few times before — that of humans hunting humans for sport — adds a good amount of satire, social commentary, and an interesting twist or two, to keep things feeling fresh and different. The acting is very good, of course Hilary Swank is great, but, personally, I thought Betty Gilpin, as the lead, was just phenomenal. I also enjoyed the way the film took a few moments to reveal Crystal as the true main character. One of my favourite things about this movie is the way it flips your own point of view against you, by having the “bad guys” embody many positive, enlightened qualities, while our victims are the ignorant, racist ones. It makes you think, and keep in mind that there are many factors that go into making a person who they are. Sure, the message is pretty straightforward… but I guess I’m cool with that :).

The Hunt essentially begins with about a dozen strangers waking up outside to find themselves gagged, they are given weapons, presumably to defend themselves, and then… the hunt begins! Bullets and arrows fly, grenades explode, and many of them don’t make it. Crystal is different though, Crystal is smart and manages to turn-the-tables on her would-be-attackers. She is tough, independent, and clearly has military training. As a female lead, especially in a horror movie, Crystal is so refreshing. Her role is never sexualized, she’s not emotional at all. She is strong, clever, capable, educated, and essentially represents the exact opposite of both the attackers, and her fellow captives, which are supposed to be opposite to each other, to begin with! The reaction to the social commentary in this film varies greatly, some yawn, others are outraged, I, myself, thoroughly enjoyed what this movie had to say and how it went about saying it. The only thing I didn’t love was the ending, but as I always say, ‘endings are hard’… so I’ll try not to hold that against this one, as I thought the rest was just awesome.

I definitely enjoyed The Hunt, I feel it delivered across the board, the acting was good, or better, and Betty Gilpin was brilliant. The story was solid and kept me interested at all times and I found the humour effective. I’m a big fan of gore, of course, and there was enough of it to keep me happy. I’d highly recommend checking this one out.