The Hunt

The Hunt is a 2020 American satire horror thriller film directed by Craig Zobel and written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It is an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game, a 1924 short story by Richard Connell. It stars Betty Gilpin, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts and Hilary Swank. Jason Blum is serving as a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner.

The film was originally planned with a release date of September 27, 2019. However, following the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings in early August 2019, Universal Pictures decided to shelve the release of the film. The decision came a day after criticism regarding the film came from US President Donald Trump.

The Hunt was theatrically released in the United States on March 13, 2020. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $8 million against its $14 million budget. Universal made the film available digitally just a week after its theatrical release due to COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the worldwide closure of movie theaters.

Premise
Loosely based on the 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, the film follows 12 strangers who mysteriously wake up in a clearing. They do not know where they are or how they got there. They discover that they have been chosen to be hunted in a game devised by a group of people from the rich elite. The hunters gather in a remote facility called the Manor House, but their sport gets derailed when one of the hunted, Crystal (Gilpin), fights back and starts killing them one by one.

The elite hunters’ reference to their quarry as “deplorables” is an allusion to a phrase ("basket of deplorables") used by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 United States presidential election campaign to refer to some supporters of her electoral opponent, Donald Trump. An early draft of the script depicted working-class conservatives as the film's heroes. Though some reports indicated the original title of the film was Red State vs. Blue State (after the U.S. political term red states and blue states), Universal issued a statement denying that the film had ever had that as its working title.

Cast

 * Betty Gilpin as Crystal
 * Ike Barinholtz as Staten Island
 * Emma Roberts as Yoga Pants
 * Hilary Swank as Athena
 * Justin Hartley as Shane
 * Glenn Howerton as Richard
 * Amy Madigan as Ma
 * Ethan Suplee as Gary
 * Macon Blair as Envoy
 * J. C. MacKenzie as Paul
 * Wayne Duvall as Don
 * Reed Birney as Pop
 * Teri Wyble as Liberty
 * Sturgill Simpson as Kid Rock

Production
In March 2018, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to the film, which would be directed by Craig Zobel with a script from Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof.

In March 2019, Emma Roberts, Justin Hartley, Glenn Howerton, Ike Barinholtz and Betty Gilpin were announced as being cast in the film. In April 2019, Amy Madigan, Jim Klock, Charli Slaughter, Steve Mokate and Dean West joined the cast of the film. Hilary Swank was announced as being cast in July.

Filming began on February 20, 2019, in New Orleans and was due to finish on April 5.

Release
The film was scheduled for release on September 27, 2019. It was, for a time, moved back to October 18 before shifting back to its original release date of September 27.

On August 7, 2019, Universal announced that in the wake of the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings, they would be suspending the film's promotional campaign. Several days later, the film was pulled from the studio's release schedule. An international release is still a possibility.

In February 2020, the film's release in the United States had been rescheduled to March 13, 2020, with a new trailer, partially in response to the success of the similarly controversial film Joker. Producer Jason Blum stated in an interview that "not one frame was changed" since the delay and that it was "exactly the same movie".

The Hunt was released on March 20 to streaming platforms, before the end of the usual 90-day theatrical run, by Universal Pictures in response to increased restrictions on screenings in movie theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initial reactions
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that there were a pair of test screenings for the film which had "negative reactions". The second screening was held on August 6, 2019, in Los Angeles, and that "audience members were again expressing discomfort with the politics" of it, an issue Universal had not foreseen (although other studios had initially passed on the script for that very reason). In a statement to Variety, Universal pushed back on a report that a test audiences had been uncomfortable with the film’s political slant, and also countered claims that the script had originally had a politically explosive title. “While some outlets have indicated that test screenings for ‘The Hunt’ resulted in negative audience feedback; in fact, the film was very well-received and tallied one of the highest test scores for an original Blumhouse film,” a Universal spokesperson said. “Additionally, no audience members in attendance at the test screening expressed discomfort with any political discussion in the film. While reports also say ‘The Hunt’ was formerly titled ‘Red State vs. Blue State,’ that was never the working title for the film at any point throughout the development process, nor appeared on any status reports under that name.”

Prior to the film's shelving, the film attracted criticism from some of the media as an alleged portrayal of liberal elitists hunting supporters of Donald Trump. Trump issued a tweet on August 9, 2019, calling "Liberal Hollywood" "[r]acist at the highest level" and saying that, "The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos", adding "They create their own violence, and then try to blame others". Although Trump did not specify the name of the film, news vehicles believed that was most likely a reference to The Hunt.

Box office
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Bloodshot and I Still Believe, and was projected to gross $8–11 million from 3,028 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.2 million on its first day, including $435,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to just $5.3 million, finishing fifth. The weekend was also noteworthy for being the lowest combined grossing since October 1998, with all films totaling just $55.3 million, in large part from societal restrictions and regulations due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the movies' theatrical releases.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 56% based on 213 reviews, with an average rating of 5.78/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The Hunt is successful enough as a darkly humorous action thriller, but it shoots wide of the mark when it aims for timely social satire." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.