My Thoughts On The Pulling Of The Movie The Hunt

So a lot of my fellow horror fans are upset about The Hunt being pulled. I don't really blame them - it's the usual scapegoating crap. Movies don't cause gun violence anymore than the NRA, religion, music, video games, vaccines, etc do. But when it comes to the movie itself, I don't think we're losing anything by pulling it because it's as uncreative and soulless as any live action Disney remake.

See, all The Hunt is is yet another boring retelling of The Most Dangerous Game with the usual "Rich people bad, poor people good" bullshit. It's such a tired, worn out trope. I don't care that the rich people in this movie are supposedly liberals hunting poor Trump supporters, it's still the same "Only poor people have morales" bullshit Hollywood churns out even though they're rich themselves.

Now there is a better way this could've been done - and that is to make it start out like it's The Most Dangerous Game, but have it turned into a supernatural slasher movie. Maybe even a new Friday The 13th.

First of all the setting - you know how there's loads of abandoned towns in America? Some because there's simply no money there, others because of things like coal fires. If we went with it being a Friday movie then it could be that everyone finally abandoned the town surrounding Camp Crystal Lake because they were tired of dealing with Jason and some secret branch of the government made it look like they had to leave due to a disaster akin to a coal mine fire.

So you start out with a group of "hunters" who like to abduct people and hunt and kill them. You don't make any mention of them being rich nor poor. No mention of any political affiliation. No NRA stickers. Nothing. You just make it clear that these people are evil and like to kill humans for sport. They always like to pick areas like this abandoned town that have lots of forests and the like around.

Once you've set it up you have them get their newest victim prepared. They let them stretch their legs, get hydrated, rested, ect. It's not a fun hunt if the prey collapses with a charlie horse just a few feet away, after all. Then they give them an hour head start.

We see them hunting their human prey, whom, despite appearances, so far is pretty good at avoiding them. Unless they're just faking to make the hunt last longer.

But pretty soon we have our slasher killer start to show up and soon the hunters become the hunted. (And so does the original human prey, obviously.) Now not only do the hunters have to find and kill their original prey, they also have to deal with this supernatural being that's picking them off.

Eventually, obviously, it should end with the slasher and the original prey face to face. Only instead of screaming and running away, the prey THANKS our slasher. She (or he) tells him that they'd rather die by his hand than the others and that they're glad he killed them first, gave them a taste of their own medicine.

Our slasher stands there - confused - they've never been thanked before. Unable to deal with this person not screaming and running away but just standing there waiting to be killed - our slasher walks off into the woods. That's when members of the secret government branch that closed off this area, only now aware of what's going on - because they are government after all - rush in to rescue our survivor.

Credits roll. Then halfway through a mid credits scene. Our survivor is laying in a bed. They open their eyes. Our supernatural slasher is standing over them. They slowly sit up. The slasher suddenly moves - to hold out a mask not unlike their own. The former prey puts it on. Cut two them walking out together, each with a weapon in their hand and the lust for blood in their hearts.