Brief Story Line
A group of unrelated people that included Crystal (Betty Gilpin - The Tomorrow War, Isn't it Romantic? etc), a man from New York (Ike Barinholtz - Blockers etc), podcaster Gary (Ethan Suplee - Motherless Brooklyn etc), Don (Wayne Duvall) and several others woke up in a mysterious place without knowing how they got there. After a short while, they started to get shot at, making them realize they were being hunted by the elitist people who were said to love doing this activity.
Meanwhile, the elitist group who was led by a mysterious woman named Athena (Hilary Swank - Boys Don't Cry, Million Dollar Baby etc) had planted many traps that would help them in killing the hunted. However, the hunt did not go well enough when one of them decided to be the hunter instead.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this violent action thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I said above, the premise sounded very interesting. The movie started very brightly with something very violent which really set up the tone. I knew instantly that this will be a movie filled with violence (no wonder HBO categorized it for 21+). Anyway the movie kept on getting better with the hunt process with some surprises as well. However, at one point of time, I thought the story deviated a bit from the hunt, but luckily it did not take long before it returned to the good stuff.
Now the second half was the highlight for me when the hunted started to become the hunter just like in movies with similar premise. And there was even a bit of twist towards the end which was quite surprising. However, one thing that I thought was weird was the use of dark humor during those scenes as it did not feel right, making the finale felt not intense enough.
When I read about this movie on the internet, it was said to be a satire of political divide between Left and Right Wing in America. Since I am not American, I could not really relate to it at all. With that in mind, I would not say anything about the satire part and just write what I felt about this movie as an entertainment vehicle. And I was indeed entertained by this movie with its premise, the surprise violent gore deaths and the action itself. I also liked Betty Gilpin performance though at first she felt a bit weird to me (unlike her previous characters in movies I had seen earlier), but as I continued watching, I grew accustomed to her. That scene when she told the story of jackrabbit was totally surprising and dark.
Aside from the cast above, there were also appearances of Emma Roberts (Billionaire Boys Club, Scream Queens TV series etc), Justin Hartley (Arrow, This is Us TV series etc), Amy Madigan (Twice in a Life Time, Roe Vs. Wade TV movie etc), Glenn Howerton (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series etc) and few others. I also quite enjoy Hilary Swank's performance in here as she fit perfectly into this role. The special effects were surprisingly good for such a movie and some of the action were pretty awesome as well, making this movie enjoyable. It is directed by Craig Zobel who directed some episodes of well known TV series, including the whole Mare of Easttown. And when I saw that it is the production of Blumhouse I could already picture this to be a rather horrifying movie.
Anyway, because of various reasons, the movie did not perform really well in the box office, including due to that political satire element. It's too bad though cause I think it could have been more successful. So if you are looking for something truly violent having many gruesome killing scenes (this is R rated) with a simple premise of people being hunted and had to defend themselves, then this one is for you. But do not watch this if you are weak at heart, especially with bloody gore scenes. I myself did have a good time watching it with the intensity and curiosity of how it would conclude, though it would have been more fun if there was no deviation in the middle or less of the dark humor during the finale.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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