Ever since The Hunt trailer began going viral, there’s been a lot of noise about what the agenda of the movie is. There’s also been very little fact-based discussion.

So let’s try to introduce some facts.

1. This comes from Blumhouse which is noted for garbage like The Purge and Get Out, low budget schlock that got unwarranted attention by pushing political and racial buttons. (The Purge has been credited by some with inspiring some of the Baltimore riots.)

It’s a safe bet that The Hunt is more of the same. A low budget flick featuring people running around and killing each other that would be unremarkable if it weren’t for the political angle.

Blumhouse’s politics aren’t subtle. The Purge featured Sarah Palin masks and Blumhouse is also linked to The Loudest Voice.

 

2. The movie’s plot hasn’t appeared on Wikipedia. And the screenplay isn’t online. But some industry resources provide a little more information.

There are loglines and a partial plot here. They may not be strictly accurate, but they sound like they’re close enough. And there’s a script review here. There’s little interesting in the review except for this part in the opening.

“The Hunt updates one of the oldest story ideas out there – hunting humans for sport. But it adds a quirky modern twist. The people being hunted were baaaad boys and girls on Twitter. So did they deserve it?”

That dovetails with a logline.

“A group of working-class people are being hunted for sport by a group of liberal elites, who are seeking revenge after a certain Reddit thread goes viral.”

This part I think is plausible.

It taps into the current outrage politics and helps frame the narrative as a death struggle in real life between people who argue online. It takes a dose of You’ve Been Shamed and mixes it with a common low-budget movie premise. 

It’s hard to look at the trailer and come away with the impression that the liberal hunters are the good guys. But the context I suspect will involve depictions of the conservative targets being “offensive” online. The actual movie will probably have very little sympathy for either side. 

What Blumhouse wants is to intrigue and offend both sides to some degree. And they’ve accomplished that. 

Ultimately this is a Hollywood gimmick for cashing in on the culture war in a cheap and dirty way.

Paying too much attention to it just gives Blumhouse what they want. But in a social media cycle driven by outrage, there’s probably no way of escaping the trap.