One of the most controversial films of 2019 was The Hunt, which never even landed in theaters, but its mere concept drew ire from a number of sources, with the film finally set to land in theaters on March 13th. From Blumhouse Productions, rather than facing any sort of backlash about its depiction of a divided political climate and various shooting tragedies, the decision was made to delay the release indefinitely, only for the upcoming release to embrace the controversial comments lobbied at it into its promotional campaign. A new international trailer for the film has debuted which depicts the film’s intense nature.
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In the film, “12 strangers wake up in a clearing. They don’t know where they are, or how they got there. They don’t know they’ve been chosen… for a very specific purpose… ‘The Hunt.’ In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a bunch of elites gathers for the very first time at a remote Manor House to hunt humans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of the hunted, Crystal (Betty Gilpin, GLOW), knows The Hunters’ game better than they do. She turns the tables on the killers, picking them off, one by one, as she makes her way toward the mysterious woman (two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank) at the center of it all.”
The film was originally slated to hit theaters last September, only for the release of its first trailer to draw immense criticism from certain corners of the internet, which even included attacks from Donald Trump. Part of the issue is that some viewers misinterpreted the intent of the film, as they didn’t deduce that the film is meant to satirize all political affiliations as opposed to targeting one agenda.
“If I was offered the choice to make the movie again, I would say yes,” producer Jason Blum told Vulture in the wake of the delay. “We definitely made marketing mistakes, and we made plenty of mistakes along the way. So I’ve learned a lot. It might change how I would position movies and how I would consult on the marketing of the movies. But actually the making of the movies? No.”
Interestingly, director Craig Zobel explicitly intended to mock people who jump to conclusions on the internet.
“I wanted to make a fun, action thriller that satirized this moment in our culture — where we jump to assume we know someone’s beliefs because of which ‘team’ we think they’re on… and then start shouting at them,” Zobel shared with Variety. “This rush to judgment is one of the most relevant problems of our time.”
The Hunt lands in theaters on March 13th.
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