The Hunt

The Hunt is an American production that is simply average mainstream entertainment in the guise of a horror movie. The movie is above average because it has quite an original narrative and the actors are directed really well. I think this will be a cult film hardcore fans will watch at least once a year. (08/04/2020)

We've already had manhunting as a "hobby for the elite", but The Hunt takes this theme from a slightly different perspective. The film offers plenty of black-humour scenes and a pretty solid unpredictability – you really don't know who will die, when and how, which is a big plus. On the whole, I was bothered by the passages with too much talking that unnecessarily stretched out the running time. The Hunt is one of those films where I can understand any rating. Otherwise, Betty Gilpin pushed the envelope a little too hard at times with her bad-ass-look, whatever. (21/05/2020)

So it seems that in 2020, the number one public enemy for the American people is not international terrorism, communism, crime, or a pandemic, it's political satire! It was clear from the beginning that the "big controversy" about The Hunt was just an exaggerated issue in a global context. The context is a profound political divide between the American left and right, and a significant percentage of Americans feel deeply moved by the mild spring breeze that was tickling their bottoms. After all, The Hunt is just a satirical action movie that indiscriminately wades into many political streams, without seemingly offering anything new, such as the series South Park which has been shouting about issues regularly for the last 15 years. Obviously, the problem is when political satire is presented quite so literally in a relatively big movie. The Hunt has already based a promotional campaign on this controversy after the not inconsiderable postponement of the premiere. At times it's an apt and humorous spectacle, and at other times it's quite unfocused and looks to be overcompensating for something. However, in the end, it's an action movie that tries it's hardest to surprise you and it's certainly not boring and it wouldn't hurt to see it. (22/03/2020)

Or when you make a film where I just couldn’t understand what the creator was trying to convey... Damon Lindelof recently surprised me with his TV adaptation of Watchmen, and when I saw that he was diving into this film from the screenwriter's chair, I just had to check it out. But as they say... the deed went astray. The Hunt does offer some pretty good moments (the gas station scene, the final, finely crafted female fight between the lead and Hilary Swank), but as a whole, it doesn’t work at all. The lead actress was excellent in terms of action, and I mostly enjoyed the fights and tense moments, but when it comes to the dramatic aspects, it really fell short. The overall story didn’t capture my interest; everything felt so detached, like it was stitched together with a hot needle, and only then did they realize they should have given it more attention. And the attempts at supposedly clever jokes completely missed the mark. I didn’t expect miracles, but this was also a disappointingly mediocre experience. For me, it gets 42%. (29/03/2020)

The first half is a nice and unpredictable semi-parody that relies on the audience’s familiarity with the rules of the genre, but it’s not afraid to overturn them for fun (and it doesn’t feel inappropriate). In the second half, after the most important cards have been revealed, the film falls into its own mirror and, despite the persisting quality of the craftsmanship and the insight, it can no longer surprise. The heroine is convincingly badass, but Hilary Swank’s attractive character (metaphorically and literally) had some more potential and I would have liked a bolder ending, given the concept of rewriting the expectations. Overall, though, it’s surprisingly good. 65% (22/03/2020)