The Washington Post - 13.03.2020

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the washington post

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friday, march 13, 2020

Movies

against conservative voters.

It t urns out that “The Hunt,” i ts

detractors and its studio’s at-

tempt to cash in on its notoriety

are all textbook examples of a

colossal self-own: As a remake of

the 1932 people-hunting thriller

“The Most D angerous Game,” t his

tepid iteration uses the ghoulish

premise mostly as an excuse to

trot out increasingly gross rituals

of torture and body horror. Using

the conceit of liberal elites exact-

ing revenge on know-nothing

“deplorables,” the filmmakers

heap plenty of smug, self-amused

scorn on both sides, but there’s n o

doubt who the hero is once the

tables are turned. Tr ying to goad

audiences into multiplexes with

the tag line “Decide for yourself”

seems particularly deluded at a

time when coronavirus and hy-

perpartisan burnout are leading

most viewers to decide to stay

home and cocoon.

It’s doubtful that anyone ven-

turing out to partake of “The

Hunt” will be provoked, much

less offended, by its politics,

which amounts to glib jokes

about snowflakes, NPR and cul-

tural appropriation on one hand,

and climate change denial, “crisis

actors” and the “deep state” on

the other. There’s n ot a MAGA hat

to be found, and the only refer-

ence to President Trump is when

someone refers to an unprintable

epithet in chief. But screenwrit-

ers Damon Lindelof and Nick

Cuse commit precisely the same

sin of reductive thinking and

crude stereotyping when they

make “The Hunt” a crypto-class

war, ignoring the inconvenient

truth that most of the voters who

tipped the election in 2016 were

relatively well-off.

But such hairsplitting is far

beyond the remit of Lindelof and

Cuse, who have crafted “The

Hunt” l ess as a polemic than as an

infantile, pox-on-both-your-

houses rant. The put-downs and

arguments serve only as so much

verbal scaffolding for the film’s

real purpose, which is to shoot,

impale, blow up and otherwise

gruesomely dispatch as many of

its loathsome characters as possi-

ble. Simply put: There are very

vile people on both sides.

The Hunt

Photos by Patti Perret/universal Pictures

R. at area theaters. contains

strong bloody violence, and crude

language throughout. 90 minutes.

BY ANN HORNADAY

‘T

he Hunt,” a movie

straining so hard to be

edgily of-the-moment

that it can’t help but be

utterly irrelevant, strives to im-

press viewers with sadistic kill-

ings, oozing viscera and extrava-

gant gushers of blood. But its

most dramatic spectacle might be

the sight of a facile, lazy enter-

prise being hoist on its own

cynical petard.

Originally scheduled for re-

lease in August, “The Hunt” was

pulled in the wake of mass shoot-

ings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso.

Although we live in a near-con-

stant state of “too-soon” (five

people died at the hands of a

gunman in Milwaukee just two

weeks ago), presumably Univer-

sal deemed March a safe enough

month to slide “The Hunt” i nto

theaters, having tweaked its mar-

keting to embrace the controver-

sy that erupted over the film last

summer, when pundits who

hadn’t seen it yet criticized the

film for glorifying violence

Just a gruesomely, inanely violent film

The lone sympathetic figure in

“The Hunt” i s a cool, preternatu-

rally capable blonde nicknamed

Snowball, cooly played by Betty

Gilpin with studied ennui and a

monotonal Mississippi accent. A

superb problem solver and sure

shot, Snowball manages to es-

cape and evade most of her tor-

mentors until the final half-hour,

when “The Hunt” — a movie that

shows zero respect for the laws of

physics, ballistics or human anat-

omy — goes from irritating to

inane.

Competently directed by Craig

Zobel (who made his debut with

the similarly opportunistic “Com-

pliance”), “The Hunt” arrives by

way of Blumhouse Productions,

which has become a reliable des-

tination for horror fans. Although

admirers of extreme violence may

be gratified by the film’s metro-

nomic scenes of graphic mayhem

and gore, anyone looking for

smart social commentary along

with their thrills will be better

served by streaming “Get Out” or

the Purge movies instead. Self-

quarantining can be just what the

doctor ordered, in more ways

than one.

[email protected]

The story about people

hunting people isn’t

really political

ABOVE: Betty Gilpin in

“The Hunt.” Gilpin is

nicknamed Snowball,

and she is the lone

sympathetic figure of the

film. LEFT: From left,

Vince Pisani, Hilary

Swank, Teri Wyble and

Hannah Alline.

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