Twelve strangers wake up gagged in a clearing, with no memory of how they got there and a stocked cache of weapons scattered nearby.
Within minutes they realize they are prey: a group of wealthy liberal elites has trafficked them to a private manor for sport, "Most Dangerous Game"-style, because the hunters believe their targets are the deplorable architects of everything wrong with the country. Craig Zobel's film sets its trap fast and mean, loading every frame with pointed jabs at how the American left and right caricature each other.
Writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof originally called the script "Red State vs. Blue State," and their target was never one side alone: both the hunters' smug moral certainty and their captives' own prejudices get skewered as the story unfolds. Universal pulled the film from its September 2019 release after the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings, then again after then-President Trump criticized it by name without having seen it, a cancellation that became a bigger news story than the movie itself. It finally opened on March 13, 2020.
Betty Gilpin anchors the film as Crystal, and she is the reason it works even where the satire lands blunt. She plays Crystal with a flat, deadpan delivery and unnerving physical control, turning what could have been a generic action lead into something stranger and funnier, and she handles the action beats with a sly ease the script around her does not always earn.
At 90 minutes, The Hunt moves fast enough that its shortcomings never sit still long enough to sink the ride. It is currently available to rent or buy digitally through services including Apple TV and Amazon, and has also streamed on Prime Video; check your usual platform before pressing play. Go in for Gilpin and the premise's nerve, not for a tidy political argument.
