Interviews
Director Craig Zobel Explains How ‘The Hunt’ is Basically Like Twitter [Interview]
Despite the controversy over The Hunt, a film in which conservative Americans are kidnapped and killed for sport by liberal elites, Craig Zobel’s horror-comedy is anything but the first movie about humans hunting humans. Films like The Most Dangerous Game, Hard Target, Battle Royale and The Hunger Games have been using the idea to explore themes of social struggles for generations.
But there’s something different about Zobel’s movie. Written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, The Hunt doesn’t just paint the hunters in an ugly, villainous light. It heavily criticizes anyone who treats their political affiliation as a badge of superiority. The film takes place in a cartoonish universe where practically everyone is a blowhard that assumes everyone around them is an even bigger blowhard.
That’s why, when Bloody-Disgusting got Craig Zobel on the phone to talk about The Hunt, one of the biggest questions on our mind was… is The Hunt about Twitter?
“I love that perception of it. Yes!” Craig Zobel laughs. “Yes is the short answer.”
Of course, there’s a longer answer as well…
“Yeah, I think that’s just it. I think that we have all decided that we know what everybody else thinks and that we’d like to yell at them about how they’re wrong,” Zobel says. “As a culture that’s what I think Twitter’s main function is, for most of the time.”
“But I also think that the interesting thing about stuff like Twitter is that in the garbage fire that is mostly that social media platform, there’s amazing things that have added to my day and been great,” Zobel adds, “and what I hope that the movie does is it shows you the empathetic experience of Betty [Gilpin]’s character; that’s like the highlight of what is normally the craziness of Twitter.”
And since the film’s villains are the self-described liberals, and since the hero is the person who kills them, Zobel finds it rather odd that the backlash to the film last summer mostly came from conservative groups.
“It’s unique, that’s all I have to say. I have fun making fun of the left, as a person who has some of those beliefs. It was really about making sure that we were laughing at ourselves as much as we could, in general,” Zobel says. “So I agree with you that it’s kind of surprising that the narrative that took off was the opposite of that, but hopefully that will be an entertaining movie to the people that go see it now!”
To push the entertainment value of the film, despite the obviously hot button themes, Zobel consciously chose to make the violence hard to take seriously.
“Yeah, I would say that we tried to make the violence as absurd as possible, in order to help the absurdity sell the satire itself, if that makes sense,” Zobel laughs.
One thing’s for sure, after the controversy surrounding The Hunt, Zobel could very well be talking about this movie for a very long time, maybe for the rest of his life. He’s okay with that, but maybe he’s not entirely ready.
“I don’t know that I’m prepared because I haven’t really thought about it until this question. But sure, I’d be down to!” Zobel says.
As the inaugural season of Apple TV+’s stellar new series “Widow’s Bay” barrels toward its finale in two weeks, the latest episode gives Kate O’Flynn the spotlight as her character revisits her trauma with the Boogeyman.
“Your Baggage“, directed by Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), sees O’Flynn’s scene-stealing Patricia once again renew her fight with the Michael Myers-like stalker that slaughtered her peers during her adolescence. Thrillingly, it makes for one extended chase sequence that sees Patricia trying to warn others, while evading the undead killer.
In short, this episode’s incredible riff on Halloween and the slasher subgenre transformed Patricia into a fierce Final Girl.
“Well, that felt like a bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list until I did it, but when I did it, I just lapped up every minute,” O’Flynn tells Bloody Disgusting of her triumphant turn this episode. “It felt fantastic for her to get that moment where she is becoming a badass. That was amazing.”
The actress turned to a few notable references for her performance. “Horror-wise, I go back to my youth, which was referenced in some of the episodes: Wicker Man, Carrie, and Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing is my kind of vibe.”
O’Flynn also notes how the series’ unique tone allows for so much creative freedom to make bold swings. “There’s something very freeing about it. Every moment is up for grabs, so it’s like we don’t have to totally land in one direction or another. It keeps it alive.“
Patricia is the eccentric assistant to Matthew Rhys‘ Mayor Tom Loftis, who’s at the forefront of trying to solve the island’s pesky curse predicament. Rhys felt the same about “Widow’s Bay” and its rare ability to make you laugh and scream in equal measure, stemming from series creator Katie Dippold.
“The mandate was, ‘It’s a real world with real people. You play for real.’ There’s no playing for comedy or horror,” Rhys echoes O’Flynn’s sentiments on how freeing the series’ tone has been.
New episodes will release every Wednesday through June 17 only on Apple TV+.
Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
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