'The Hunt' Movie Reviews: What The Critics Are Saying About New Blumhouse Film

"The Hunt" has faced both criticism and delays, but now, the highly-discussed horror movie is finally being released. As stated by IMDb, the film follows 12 strangers who wake up and quickly realize that they have been chosen to participate in the event for "a very specific purpose."

Although the Blumhouse Productions film has yet to officially make its debut, some critics have already spoken out about the project, which stars Hilary Swank, Emma Roberts, and Sturgill Simpson. Here's what a few of them have to say:

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The Washington Examiner - Madeline Fry and Tiana Lowe

"To its significant credit, 'The Hunt' has dared to wade into a vacuum of storytelling. It boldly aims to show how our ugly culture war could manifest itself if illiberalism continues to swell. But it does little more than signpost at why the 'elites' or 'deplorables' are deemed as such."

The New York Times - Brooks Barnes

"Rather than a horror movie with some social commentary, à la 'The Purge,' 'The Hunt' is shown as a comedic social satire with some horror elements. In particular, the new trailer plays up the absurdity of the premise."

Forbes - Scott Mendelson

"'The Hunt' is a harmless exploitation action-comedy, but its hot-button premise was an inevitable lightning rod for manufactured controversy."

Collider - Matt Goldberg

"'The Hunt' is reminiscent of a film like 'Joker,' a movie that pretends to be thoughtful and speak to our current moment without really saying much of anything. Lindelof and Cuse had an interesting starting point about how we view our political identities, and how those identities are forged not in our behavior but in opposition to those with an antagonistic identity, but the writers have no idea how to build the commentary beyond an easy dismissal of conflict as ridiculous."

USA Today - Brian Truitt

"'The Hunt'” is definitely controversial, but it’s an equal-opportunity offender that forgoes partisanship to poke bloody, gory fun at everybody."

ShowBiz CheatSheet - Fred Topel

"The premise of 'The Hunt' is fraught with sensitive subjects so it’s understandable that reactions to the trailer alone could turn people off. That’s the point of satire though. It’s supposed to be provocative. Jonathan Swift’s 'A Modest Proposal' would’ve turned people off if there were cameras and Twitter too. Once you see 'The Hunt,' you’ll see it’s so outrageous it can only be satire."

Prior to its release, director Craig Zobel spoke about the new film from Blumhouse Productions and what he hoped audiences would take away from it whenever it was finally released.

"My hope would be that people will reflect on why we are in this moment, where we don't have any desire to listen to each other," he said, adding, "And if I'm lucky some of us will ask each other: how did we get here? And where do we want to go moving forward?"

"The Hunt" opens in theaters on Friday.