Satirical horror movie The Hunt caused a good deal of controversy when it released its first trailer last year, and now the film is exploiting that fact with a new ad campaign that’s centered entirely on just how controversial it is.
The film, as shown in this new trailer, is ostensibly about a group of “liberal elites” who perform a literal hunt on a group of “deplorable” Americans every year. However, the movie is also a satire — something that’s pretty clear from the trailer — and whatever political and societal commentaries it puts forth probably won’t be known until the movie is released. What is known is that the film is exploiting the considerable controversy it caused last year in an attempt to drive people to see it.
Originally scheduled for release last September, the film’s promotional campaign was suspended following the mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso in August. President Trump also criticized the film on Twitter in August, calling the movie “racist” and claiming it would “inflame and cause chaos.” The following day, Universal issued a statement stating that they were canceling the film outright. It’s unclear what happened to change the studio’s mind since then, because not only is the movie back on, it’s now running a campaign based solely around the controversy that it ignited just a few short months ago. The new campaign and trailer tout the film as being the most talked about movie of the year despite the fact that no one has seen it while leaning even more heavily into its satirical premise. Check out the new trailer below.
The new poster for the film takes the campaign even further, including a number of derogatory statements about the film from various media outlets. It even pokes fun at the previously-canceled release date, showing it crossed out with the new date of March 13 beside it.
It’s unclear what kind of effect this new campaign will have on the film’s box office performance, but we’ll find out when The Hunt hits theaters in March.
