The Hunt is a 2020 American horror thriller film directed by Craig Zobel and written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof. The film stars Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, and Hilary Swank. Jason Blum was a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner, along with Lindelof. Zobel and Lindelof have said that the film is intended as a satire on the profound political divide between the American left and right.
The film was first announced in March 2018, and the cast signed on a year later. Filming took place in New Orleans. The film was originally scheduled for release on September 27, 2019. However, as a result of the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings in early August 2019, Universal Pictures decided to delay it. The studio announced the delay in the days after the film received criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump and right-wing media outlets for its perceived bias.
The Hunt was theatrically released in the United States on March 13, 2020 by Universal Pictures and received mixed reviews from critics. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of most theaters within a week of the film's release, which resulted in the film underperforming at the box office, grossing only $16 million. Universal made The Hunt available digitally on March 20.