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Movie Review: The Hunt

Mike Tyrkus

Stop me if you’ve know this one, twelve strangers wake up in deserted clearing with no idea of how they arrived there and aClear cachere then systematically hunted for sport by more affluent members of society. If you haven’t heard that story, morality play, joke, or whatever you would like to call it, before, that may be because it is none of those things. It is, in fact, the plot of the new horror film called The Hunt.

This is a film that starts off at full-throttle and never lets up. Director Craig Zobel, who directed the overlooked science-fiction parable Z for Zachariah (2015), drops the viewer right in the middle of the action along with the players and leaves them just as disoriented and confused (but in a good way). Writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof (HBO’s Watchmen) craft a story that plays on numerous standards of the cat-and-mouse story, but somehow managed to never let anything seem stale or complacent. There’s actually a sort of cleverness at work here that is not only surprising but refreshing as well. Additionally, the controversially-delayed movie could easily have proven to be nothing more than a collection of increasingly gory dispatching scenes heaped upon one another, rather than the engaging thriller that it is.

Emma Roberts in “The Hunt.”

The greatest asset at The Hunt’s disposal is the strong work of Betty Gilpin as Crystal. While she may not start out as the protagonist of the film, she quickly becomes the reason the film proves as successful as it does. While she’s not reciting the words of the Bard here, she does carry the film very effectively and manages to carry the film from beginning to end almost effortlessly. It’s a performance that is reminiscent of something like Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien (1979), though that film was just a tad bit better than this one.

Furthermore, there’s a fine supporting cast that allows the film to move at a breezy pace that never weighs itself down with any unneeded stoppage or unwarranted explanation. Among the standouts, if they can be called that, as some are dispatched almost as soon as they are introduced (but that’s exactly part of the fun at work here), include: Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, Justin Hartley, Usman Ally, Vince Pisani, Steve Coulter, and Hilary Swank.

While The Hunt may not be everyone’s idea of good sport, it does make for an incredibly refreshing addition to the horror film landscape currently at play in theaters. There’s considerably less gore than one would expect at work here and much more fun than you might want.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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