The Hunt is on... again.
For realsies this time.
The Universal and Blumhouse film has a new release date of March 13th, and a new ad campaign about how "the most talked about movie of the year is one that no one's actually seen".
The uncanceled film even comes with a brand-new trailer.
The film is loosely based on the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game," where a man becomes trapped on an island owned by a rich and successful hunter who has grown bored with game hunting, and instead hunts humans for the challenge.
In the movie, 12 strangers who have shared conservative views online are kidnapped and hunted by rich elites. Everything changes when one of the hunted, played by Betty Gilpin, fights back.
The film was set to be released last year, on September 27, 2019. That is until it became mired in controversy.
In early August, the Dayton and El Paso shootings horrified the nation as the two events happened in less than a day of each other. The Hunt came under heavy criticism for its violence after this.
Two days later, Donald Trump tweeted his distaste for the film, causing it to be pulled a day later.
However, as we now know the movie wasn't canceled entirely. It has been scheduled for release next month, with a new ad campaign taking advantage of the controversy.
The change in release date came with a new poster that has quotes from negative news coverage of the movie, effectively providing all the advertisement this movie needed.
"Exploitative rather than opinionated" – Daily Mail
"Shows Hollywood for what it really is, demented and evil." – Fox News
"Designed to stoke division in the country" – The Wall Street Journal
Obviously, this movie is an attack on Trump-loving Americans by the evil Hollywood bigwigs.
However, these criticisms against the movie are missing the point. The "right wing" hunted are the protagonists and the "liberal" elites are the villains in this movie.
If you have a problem with the violence in this movie, sure, understandable. America has always had people protesting violence in movies and television.
I'm sure if that's the case, you also weren't a fan of the Death Wish remake.
But the main detractors have a problem with the apparent premise of conservatives being hunted for sport, like anyone in their right mind wants that. Killing conservatives is portrayed as a bad thing in this movie, and the liberal elites are unlikeable.
Also, The Purge series pretty much did the opposite of this as a hard-right wing party took over America and instituted what amounts to legal killing of the poor, so it's not like this kind of extreme satire is unheard of, let alone become popular.
I honestly don't understand people anymore.
The Hunt is slated for release on Friday the 13th next month, a date I'm sure is in no way ironic. It stars Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank, Glenn Howerton and the nightmares of your weird conservative uncle.
