Trump Blasts Blumhouse Movie 'The Hunt' After Fox News Condemns It
Blumhouse's upcoming satire/thriller "The Hunt" is hardly the first movie where people hunt other people for sport (or other unpleasant motives), but the upcoming Universal movie was blasted by Donald Trump today after being trashed on several Fox News segments.
The movie, which stars Hilary Swank, Emma Roberts and Betty Gilpin of "Glow," had already pulled back on advertising after real-life mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas.
On Wednesday, Universal issued a statement saying: "Out of sensitivity to the attention on the country’s recent shooting tragedies, Universal Pictures and the filmmakers of 'The Hunt' have temporarily paused its marketing campaign and are reviewing materials as we move forward."
However, ads had already run on Fox News, including one on Tucker Carlson's show last Friday night.
Trump took to Twitter today to decry the movie after it was discussed on Fox & Friends. Maria Bartiromo, one of Trump's favorite hosts, wondered on her Fox Business show, if it was going to "encourage more backlash against conservatives."
The film stars Gilpin as a would-be victim who turns the tables on the "elites" who have set up the murderous game.
We should point out that previous movies on this theme date back to the 1930s with "The Most Dangerous Game," up through "The Hunger Games," "Battle Royale," and, of course, "The Purge" franchise, with the audience sympathy usually going towards those simply trying to survive, not whoever is in charge of such cruel "games."
"The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos," Trump tweeted Friday afternoon. "They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!"
On Thursday night, Fox Business host — and informal Trump adviser — Lou Dobbs called the film "a sick, twisted new movie." After telling his viewers about the film's plot, he said, "This is fiction, but it sounds a little like reality, doesn't it?"
"The Hunt" is currently set to open Sept. 27. Here's the synopsis:
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don’t know where they are, or how they got there. They don't know they've been chosen… for a very specific purpose … The Hunt. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a group of globalist elites gathers for the very first time at a remote Manor House to hunt humans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of the hunted, Crystal (Gilpin), knows The Hunters’ game better than they do. She turns the tables on the killers, picking them off, one by one, as she makes her way toward the mysterious woman (Swank) at the center of it all.
As of Friday evening, the official Twitter for production company Blumhouse has the trailer as its pinned tweet and hadn't yet responded to the criticism.
Trump's tweets just might help drive sales for the film, since it's the first time several people are hearing about it.
The upcoming thriller "Ready or Not" has a similar theme, with a bride trying to survive her honeymoon with her heavily armed new in-laws.
The universal message here in almost all these movie: Don't trust rich and powerful people, regardless of their political affiliations.
[Via THR]