Buckle up kids – this one is gonna be lit.

We are reviewing The Hunt.

A U.S. movie that came out with a trailer JBC (Just Before Covid) that looked “kinda interesting”, “might be cool” in a “popcorn/shut-off-the-brain & enjoy-the-carnage” sort of way.  You know – like Ready or Not!  (which is a good ‘un…).

But THIS film gets banned, and you hear it’s for reasons around politics (or some such) and you automatically assume it might have something to do with… umm… guns? 
I mean, it’s clearly a violent film, and let’s face it, if there’s one country that is insanely messed up around the issue of firearms, it’s blah blah blah.

So we all move on without giving it further thought, as there are plenty of other things to devote our daily quota of brain-focus towards. 
For example, for Aussie audiences at the time, it was all about trying to not catch on fire… (remember around Xmas when THAT was a thing?)

But we are in the now-now time, and in terms of entertainment stocks, pretty much any content today (see the date this review was/is posted) has a chance of finding an audience via a streaming service; whether it be old (Community), new (Tiger King) or banned…

If The Hunt was hoping to slot into that 3^rd category, it severely misread the room.  Because when you live in an age where a global pandemic can be politicised, releasing a film that pisses off the American President (and therefore a hoard of his followers) for INCORRECT reasons (he hadn’t seen it) and Snowflake Liberals (for fairly legit reasons) then you’re just being annoying.

And not in a cool “look at us – we’re so out there!  We’re-provoking!  We don’t care if-you’re-offended! You’ve-reacted-so-our-point-is-made! We’re-forcing-you-to-look-at-the-issue!” sort of way.  (For a start, if any of those were true, you would’ve made a better film…).

So premise – and for this review we will be entering spoiler territory, so beware – we have a Predators-esque/Hunger Games style set-up where a bunch of random “everyday” Americans wake up in the countryside, bound, groggy and with no idea how they got there.

A cache of weapons is found, and as soon as they arm themselves the hunt is on.

They are shot/blown up and generally hounded in what these people called “Manorgate”.  An extreme right-wing conspiracy sorta along the lines of Pizzagate (wiki that one!) that in this instance, claims rich Liberal elites kidnap people and hunt them for sport on the grounds of one of their mansions.

And considering every one of the hunties are right wing fanatics in some form or another (bloggers/vloggers/YouTube & Facebook Commentators etc.) this is both Xmas and Reverse Xmas at once.

The former because for all their nutjob ramblings, they have been proven right.  And the latter because… well…hunted…

And the divide between the victims (The Right) and the bad guys (The Left) are underlined even more when it is revealed that some of the hunters are the sort of people who equate soft drink to poison (‘cause you know, sugar ‘n shit) and one of them admits to being (in effect) a Crisis Actor; one of THE MOST abhorrent things in the world to ever admit being real, let alone being one.

What’s more, these snowflakes are so useless (a term The Right love to label The Left with) they need to be taught how to kill by a military consultant who is not that qualified – again kneeling to the notion The Left don’t do their research or “check their facts”.  Fakes news anyone?

So you get the idea.  The victims are portrayed as mostly ineffectual and somewhat simple folk – apart from when they go on an Alex Jones-esque rant.  But their horribleness (as determined by the Evil Liberals who selected them) is never fully explored because the majority of them get killed in the first few minutes.

But the Liberals haven’t even played their worst mistake card yet.  Because here is another thing they didn’t fact check – the real identity of one of The Deplorables, Crystal Creasey (played by Glow’s Betty Gilpin.  AKA Ghost Town’s ghost-nurse Betty Gilpin).  

Crystal has the same name as one of the selected victims, but is in truth not her (‘cause, as established, Lefties get things wrong) so she’s worse than a Deplorable.  She’s an innocent.

But not a helpless innocent. Oh no, she is ex-military – sour, quiet, smart, tough and resourceful.  She scowls like a female Clint Eastwood, and kicks ass methodically and intuitively.  She is not only cool, but she wins. She takes charge.  And she doesn’t give a shit what anybody else does, or whether they need her help or not.  Just so long as they don’t get in her way.  (Remind you of any kind of person?)

So this Libertarian poster child kills her way to the Boss Fight, featuring the Mastermind behind it all, Athena – played by Academy Award winner Hilary Swank.  Where it is revealed this whole murderball spree has come about because of a scourge act of the 21^st century.  Mob outrage over an inappropriate internet comment.  In this case a private messenger conversation between the Liberal Elites about Deplorables that gets leaked, that – jokingly or not – sees them lose their careers because political correctness is clearly out of hand yada-yada-yada.

So as an act of revenge they create Manorgate for realsies…

Anyway, back to the final confrontation – where we also discover that not only has Athena made a mistake with Crystal, but she somewhat condescendingly is shocked to realise her would-be victim knows Animal Farm; an in-joke revolving around their codename for Crystal (it’s Snowball) which plays into yet another notion about The Left. They assume everyone outside their bubble is uneducated.

So where does this leave us – the audience?

Well – seeing as one of the writers is a man not immune to internet outrage – Damon Lindelof – you can expect to be annoyed (and you will be.  Although to his credit he’s achieved this outside his normal modes.  Ie: There are no spirals of logic leading to nowhere with this one).  

In fact, it’s all pretty straight forward plot wise.  Just the why & the what of it really hits you.

The set-up is unoriginal, which in itself is not a sin.  But it’s outcome?  All Crystal had to do was show that she was politically above or below all this in some way, and suddenly you have a palpable indicator of what this film is trying to say.

“BUT WAIT! Why does it have to say anything at all?  Why does she have to take a political stance!?”  To which the booming answer is – the filmmakers started it!  But yeah, the film certainly didn’t HAVE to.  A really great example how this type of movie can be a fun popcorn ride with no political lacing is the afore mentioned Ready or Not, where the only people it seems to slag off are rich ones who worship Satan.  Which, as targets go, seems easy, but still pretty legit….

So Lindelof and co-writer Nick Cuse start a project that definitely wants to say something about the party divide in America.  But the only 2 immediately obvious outcomes you can hope for is that they are against both, or they are on the side of the victims.  Which is the right.  And if Crystal – their avatar – does indeed sit somewhere on the elephant/donkey spectrum, it’s never revealed, as she’s a fairly shallow character whose only virtue is she can take an unrealistic knife wound to the gut and live.

So that leaves us with the “Aww – don’t be so wound up, it’s only a bit of fun” brigade.  

And in a different time, that could be a fair enough point to let through the gate.  But in a PC age (Post Covid, not the other one) idiocy is a virus more virulent than the one that’s currently killing a whole lot of people.  And if there’s one thing today’s idiots don’t need, its misguided fuel in any way, shape or form.  Even if it is silly entertainment.

Yes.  This review is THAT condescending.

Because – and this is a reverse spin kick to contemplate – what if this movie actually says “Yeah! The Right ARE victims!  This film shines a spotlight on how harshly and unfairly they are treated by The Left and their Big Government Ideas, fake media and social justice bullshit”.  In which case I say to you… 

STAY RIGHT THERE.  Resistance is futile.  We will find you.  We will get you.  We will make it painless.  Probably.  Just as soon as we finish implementing universal health care so we can inject you all with autism causing brain tracking lifesaving vaccines…

Prognosis

If you hate this film you are an uptight lefty elitist wanker.  If you like it you are deplorable.  Either way watch Ready or Not.  It’s much better.

• Antony Yee