Blumhouse's controversial horror/thriller The Hunt has a lot to say about social media culture, and just how much it can effect people's real lives. The Hunt's road to theaters was one of the strangest in recent memory. Not long after the release of the film's trailer, perceptions concerning what The Hunt was about and its apparent political slant led U.S. president Donald Trump and other right-wing media figures to condemn the film and suggest a boycott of its coming theatrical release.
This controversy led distributor Universal Pictures to pull The Hunt from its planned fall 2019 release date, much to the chagrin of production studio Blumhouse and those who participated in the project. They argued that The Hunt was being unfairly maligned, especially since no one had seen the film yet, and that its story wasn't quite what the marketing had made things seem. Still, the delay stuck, at least until February 2020, when Universal reversed course.
A new trailer for The Hunt was released, announcing a new March 2020 release date. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus pandemic hit at the worst possible time for The Hunt, leading to a box office flat-line. It turns out that the filmmakers were right though, as The Hunt wasn't merely about "red vs. blue" politics. It's also a film very much concerned with the hazards of social media.
What The Hunt's Political Messaging Says About Social Media
In The Hunt, the titular event actually begins as nothing more than a joke between rich left-wing friends about relieving tension by killing off "deplorable" right-wingers. Unfortunately for Athena (Hilary Swank), that conversation ends up leaked online, leading to a torrent of condemnation on social media, as well as Athena and friends losing their cushy corporate jobs. Enraged, Athena is inspired to actually make The Hunt a reality, kidnapping those she and the others find to be bad people and forcing them to participate, including Crystal May (Betty Gilpin), who Athena believes to have insulted her personally online.
The Hunt has nothing good to say about social media, suggesting that both sides were at fault. While Athena and her friends were wrong to joke about killing people, and obviously even more wrong to actually do it, Crystal and the others also were wrong to insist that their lives be destroyed as a result. What Athena and her friends did was in poor taste, but "canceling" them via a social media movement was unfair. At the same time, being mean to someone on social media is never justification for them to reply with real-life violence. The Hunt's plot is essentially an extreme example of how internet culture and social media specifically can sometimes create electronic mobs intent only on punishing on those they hate at that particular time. At the end of the day, everyone needs more empathy and understanding, and less immediate demands for their destruction.