Film’s message lost in bloody mayhem

THE Hunt

THE Hunt was due for release last year in the United States, but that was delayed because of the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

It’s a Blumhouse Production so you pretty much know what to expect, except The Hunt comes at its gory premise through the prism of the left/right divide in America.

On a flight from somewhere in America to an unknown destination twelve strangers are drugged and gagged in the back of the plane while upfront the liberal elite are being served champagne and caviar.

That’s until one of those in the back whom they dub ‘deplorables’ makes his way forward and causes a bit of a stir.

On landing the strangers find themselves free in the countryside.

A large crate reveals weapons for them and a key to unlock their gags.

All too soon they’re been shot at, they are the targets in ‘the hunt’.

No sooner do we identify a character than he or she ends up bloodied and dead.

That’s until Crystal (Betty Gilpin) arrives at a roadside service station where the apparent proprietors Ma (Amy Madigan) and Pop (Reed Birney) had proven fairly inhospitable to earlier arrivals.

Crystal is a no-nonsense war machine, she knows everyone is lying, and she has no compunction about using her not-inconsiderable skills to eliminate them, leading to an ultimate confrontation with the Queen Bee Athena (Hilary Swank).

The creators of this, writers Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof and director Craig Zobel have a background in television.

Any serious message about our society is lost in the mayhem, and development of character is subsumed by the efforts to create genre.

However, Betty Gilpin is pretty impressive as a woman of action, although her backstory is sketchy, and the extended final battle between the two women is both funny and bloody.

Actually, much of the film is extremely amusing.