Twelve strangers wake up in an unfamiliar place with no idea how they got there, and within minutes they learn why they were chosen: to be hunted. The Hunt, Craig Zobel's 2020 American satire, packs that premise into ninety minutes of action, horror and thriller.
What is The Hunt about?
The setup is blunt. A circle of wealthy liberal elites has gathered for the first time at a remote manor house, and their idea of sport is tracking down ordinary people they dismiss as 'deplorables', supporters of Donald Trump in the story's own terms. The captives come to in open country, confused and unprepared, and the game starts before anyone can compare notes. What the organisers did not plan for is Crystal, played by Betty Gilpin. She understands the rules of the hunt better than the people who wrote them, and she begins working her way back through the hunters, one at a time, toward the mysterious woman at the centre of the scheme, played by Hilary Swank. Billed as a subversive satire, the story uses the gulf between the two camps as its fuel from the first scene onward.
About the cast
Betty Gilpin leads as Crystal, with Hilary Swank as the woman behind the hunt. The ensemble around them includes Emma Roberts, J. C. MacKenzie, Justin Hartley, Ethan Suplee, Macon Blair and Glenn Howerton. Craig Zobel directs.
Context & significance
The Hunt belongs to the family of human-prey stories, where the tension comes from watching the hunted learn the terrain and turn it against their pursuers. This 2020 entry places that old idea inside contemporary American political division: hunters and hunted are defined by which side of the divide they stand on, and the script treats their mutual suspicion as material for satire. It is a United States production that sits across three genres at once, with the pace of an action film, the shocks of horror and the cat-and-mouse structure of a thriller. At ninety minutes it is a compact watch. Viewers who are sensitive to on-screen violence should take the horror label at face value.
Watching The Hunt on Ktime
The Hunt is on Ktime with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so each household can pick the version it prefers. Reading this page is free; playing the film needs a Ktime account login. Menus, search and the player are all available in Farsi for Persian-speaking viewers living abroad.