Open season on deplorables? Controversial film sets release

FPI / February 14, 2020

Universal Pictures has announced it has set a firm release date of March 13 for The Hunt, a horror-thriller in which entitled rich people hunt so-called “deplorables” for sport.

The trailer for the movie includes the line, “The most talked about movie of the year is one nobody’s seen yet.”

“In all fairness, one cannot comment on the content unseen, and considering there are in fact some known Hollywood players involved here it would be sound to suggest there is a satirical messaging involved with the plot,” Brad Slager wrote in a Feb. 13 op-ed for RedState.

According to a synopsis released on Tuesday, The Hunt, starring Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Betty Gilpin, features 12 strangers who awake in a clearing who don’t yet know they’ve been chosen for the hunt, but one of them manages to turn the table on the pursuers.

“None of us were interested in taking sides with this movie,” said producer Jason Blum.

Screenwriter Damon Lidelof said: “We really don’t want to be pointing fingers, and more importantly, we don’t want to be wagging fingers at anyone for overreacting or reacting incorrectly. We just felt like the movie was being misunderstood.”

The R-rated movie was initially scheduled for release in September but was cancelled amid a torrent of criticism at a time when the nation was dealing with mass shootings in Texas, Ohio and California.

RedState’s Slager noted that “Conservative pundits, and even President Trump, weighed in with commentary about what it meant to offer up the disturbing premise of conservative or even pro-MAGA characters being targeted as a group. While it can be argued this was trending towards the hyperbolic or at the least an overreaction, there was plenty of validity to this reaction.”

Slager continued: “In the months ahead of this trailer the Democrats had been on a mission to decry words being spoken by conservatives — and by President Trump in particular — as actually being threatening. We were told that Trump saying harsh rebukes towards Ilhan Omar, for example, were somehow placing the freshman congresswoman in danger. The press was more than happy to amplify this message, since many journalists had already been claiming that the president’s regular criticism of the media was placing them in harm’s way.”

Slager concluded: “Next month there will be every chance for people from both sides to express dismay. Conservatives might say it is wrong to have a group dubbed ‘deplorables’ targeted for violence, while the leftist set can be offended by all of the gunplay portrayed on screen. The conjoined outrage may lead to copious amounts of free advertising.”



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