The Hunt 2020 * * 1/2 Stars

Director: Craig Zobel
Year: 2020
Rated R
Rating: * * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Betty Gilpin, Hillary Swank, Emma Roberts

The Hunt is my latest review. And no, it has nothing to do with "Red October", Lee Marvin, or an actress named Helen.

Released at maybe the wrong month for these trying times (March of 2020) and featuring a pig character named Orwell (that's symbolism at its finest), "Hunt" is directed by one Craig Zobel. Zobel fashions The Hunt as part "grindhouse", part camp, and something the late Charlton Heston would get a kick out of (NRA hint hint).

Starring the likes of known actors Hillary Swank, Emma Roberts, and Ike Barinholtz (Emma and Ike basically make cameos), "Hunt" is splatter house tongue-in-cheek with a non-sequential narrative. It starts out as Surviving the Game meets 1981's Southern Comfort only to harbor more twists and turns than a street called Lombard.

So yeah, I squirmed at "Hunt's" putrid violence which was remorseless (look for the best girl fight since Vivica A. Fox and Uma Thurman squared off in Kill Bill). And yes, The Hunt had enough political remnants to make me think it was actually making a broad statement. Still, the film is sort of ill-timed and I think the viewer might get a bad taste in their mouths after an on demand purchase.

Clocking in at a running time of 90 minutes and distributed by Universal Pictures International (in 7 different countries), The Hunt has to do with 12 people who wake up in the middle of nowhere. With gags in their mouths, plenty of ammo, and not a darn clue, they are being hunted for sport in the country of Croatia (which initially masks as Arkansas).

Bottom line: "Hunt" targets its audience as the "cynical" prey. No one is safe in this movie and the mean-spirited surplus is almost too much to handle with the world we're living in. Rating: 2 and a half stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson