The Hunt
Universal Pictures | Release Date: March 13, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
21
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
BBCCaryn JamesMar 14, 2020
The Hunt is a smart satire that uses genre tropes to explore volatile social issues. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 12, 2020
The Hunt occupies a special place in the chockablock landscape of movie junk. This gleeful, gross-out gorefest looks as tacky and violent as its trackdown plot would suggest, and lives up to certain parts of its bad reputation. It is also funny, genuinely topical, extremely shrewd and, heaven help us, slyly wise. I liked it quite a lot. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 12, 2020
Rage — shared by characters on both sides, even as they direct it at each other — is what “The Hunt” is all about. Anger is the source of its humor and its horror, both of which are fairly effective. The fights and shootouts are brisk and brutal. The dialogue pops with inventive profanity and familiar varieties of name-calling and woke-speak. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 11, 2020
The Hunt is neither a harbinger of Western civilization’s end nor quite the Swiftian satire its creators want it to be. It’s simply a better-than-decent B-movie, the kind that takes pride in its sick kills and throws a lot of punches that only occasionally connect. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMar 11, 2020
If Hollywood really is an elite liberal bubble, Damon Lindelof might just be the prick it needs. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 11, 2020
This action-drenched roller-coaster of a film tries to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to generating a tidal wave of violence — but it undeniably delivers the goods when it comes to action and impudence. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMar 11, 2020
A movie that jumps on buzzwords like “canceled” like a hungry dog on a juicy steak, but never coalesces into a coherent statement about, well, anything. Read full review
55
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaMar 11, 2020
It’s a film that feels like it was designed to rile everyone up, but it ultimately has nothing to say about anything. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreMar 16, 2020
The Hunt isn’t a total mishap, not with Gilpin being as good as she is and with Zobel’s gleeful aptitude for violence, but that’s what’s so exasperating about it. It has a habit of getting in its own way with trollish tendencies whenever it starts to build momentum. Read full review
50
Screen RantSandy SchaeferMar 12, 2020
A better survival thriller than social commentary via the horror genre, The Hunt only just holds together thanks to Betty Gilpin's virtuoso lead turn. Read full review
50
The Associated PressMark KennedyMar 11, 2020
The Hunt is not great satire or even a great film. It’s an unstylish and heavy-handed horror-thriller that turns into a revenge gore-fest as it mocks everyone with a big clumsy paw. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 11, 2020
Nothing incendiary to see here, folks. Just a mostly forgettable, slow-season splatter movie. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowryMar 11, 2020
A thinly sketched out, wildly violent satire, one that rather cynically uses the current backdrop of partisan tribalism as the hook for an old-time exploitation piece. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineHenry StewartMar 11, 2020
The film was almost canceled for being too partisan, so it’s ironic to discover that it’s practically apolitical. Read full review
50
PolygonJesse HassengerMar 11, 2020
The movie’s mock-jaundiced attitude toward social media is itself satirical, and there’s a germ of a funny idea about how principled liberals can get entangled in pointless social media battles and infighting. But it’s eclipsed by an unavoidably moneyed perspective that presumes privileged people are inherently liberal, rather than attacking the hypocrisy of rich liberals in particular. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansMar 31, 2020
It’s not subtle, or particularly clever, though Glow’s Betty Gilpin is fun to watch as an ultra-violent ex-military veteran with a southern drawl. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 11, 2020
The Hunt is the cinematic equivalent of watching strangers argue on the internet about politics: It’s fleetingly amusing but, ultimately, not the best use of anyone’s time. Read full review
40
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 11, 2020
It starts strongly, with the gory deaths coming thick, fast and often unexpectedly, and Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse’s script giving the viewer no purchase on the unfolding mayhem. The underrated Gilpin is a steely, lib-owning presence, too. But the surprises soon dry up. Read full review
40
Total FilmJordan FarleyMar 11, 2020
A late fight scene is staged with verve, and Gilpin is good value in an underwritten role. But given the politically fractious times we live in, this inane satire is a colossal missed opportunity. Read full review
40
EmpireJoshua RothkopfMar 11, 2020
A political football that arrives punctured and sputtering, this toothless class satire — an equal-opportunity offender — shouldn’t have pre-enraged anyone. It’s hardly the Hollywood takedown the MAGA crowd feared. Read full review
40
The GuardianAdrian HortonMar 11, 2020
In making the worst stereotypes of America’s political poles as extreme as possible, and America’s divide as literal and violent as possible, The Hunt feigns a viewpoint rather than actually having one. It takes aim at everyone, redeeming no one. Which feels circular, and queasy, and right back where we started: some empty talk about a divided nation, and a film thats probably not worth this much conversation. Read full review
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