Killer Instinct
The hunT I Humans are the quarry in a modern take on The Most Dangerous Game…
You guys have political division in Britain too, right?” Director Craig Zobel knows when he’s tweaking a nerve, and that’s exactly what’s going to make The Hunt such a shock for anyone expecting the straight-up action-thriller it’s being billed as. The truth is, though, we’re lucky the film is being billed as anything at all since the plot has been kept so tightly under wraps – with Jason Blum and Damon Lindelof’s names on the credits keeping the rumour mill churning.
The first trailer, which landed last month, gives nothing away – styled as an ad for a high-end woodland retreat where you can pay to hunt humans.
“It’s about a group of people that wake up in a field with gags in their mouths, not knowing where they are,” says Zobel, happy to fill in some blanks. “They quickly realise that they’re being hunted, and the movie takes a few turns from there…”
Mirroring real-world headlines about conspiracy theories (“It’s sort of a QAnon, Pizzagate sort of scenario”), The Hunt takes pot shots at what Zobel calls “the Super Bowl-ification” of the world. “It’s like it doesn’t matter what people’s politics are any more, it’s more about them being on the other
team,” he says. “I wanted to poke fun at that kind of tribalism.”
So it’s a satire. But it’s also a thriller, a comedy and, above all else, a stonking great action movie. “First and foremost I wanted this film to be a good time at the cinema,” says Zobel – coming to the film after provocative drama Compliance, indie collaborations with David Gordon Green, and a run of directing credits on Westworld, American Gods and The Leftovers. “I really wanted the film to be fun, so I looked at action scenes in everything from Tropic Thunder and The Raid to Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Our stunt team has done loads in the Marvel universe too, so we really tried to push the action into some pretty extreme places.”
In line with the tonal shifts, the cast has been drawn from pretty much every casting pool – with Betty Gilpin (GLOW) leading the group of victims alongside Emma Roberts (American Horror Story) and Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia), with Hilary Swank playing the shadowy figure at the centre of it all (“You can’t go wrong with a two-time Oscar winner”).
Of course, with Damon ‘Lost’ Lindelof as a co-writer, whatever we think we know could always be a bluff. “You’re always splitting the difference between telling people enough to get them excited, but also not ruining it for them,” laughs Zobel. “There’s a lot of stuff that I’m looking forward to people finding out for themselves…”
ETA | 27 SEPTEMBER / THE HUNT OPENS NEXT MONTH.