Review of The Hunt (2013) by Daniel R — 14 Sep 2014

Rating: 9.5/10.

Here is a horror film without a monster; without a villain even. The Hunt is a film that cuts so deep, is so terrifying, so difficult to watch that one shudders to think just how quickly and easily a life can be ruined, because that is what is happening in this film.

Lucas is a kindergarden teacher. He is playful with the children, friendly with the staff, and when he goes home he often goes hunting and/or drinking with his friends. One of his students is the daughter of his best friend, Theo. Lucas and the little girl, named Klara, are close because Lucas and Theo are close, and in Lucas we see that Klara trusts and cares about him, as well as his dog Fanny.

One day while at home, Klara's brother and his friend are bawdily laughing about a pornographic image on his iPad, and stupidly subject this image to young Klara. The image shows a woman holding a man's erect penis. Later at school, Klara watches as Lucas is playing around with her schoolmates and jumps on him and kisses him, and act he gently chastises. Like so many kids would be, she is angry about this. Then, while waiting for her mother to pick her up, she makes a comment to another teacher, saying she hates Lucas because he "has a penis and it points up." The teacher is disturbed to hear this, and asks if Klara saw Lucas's penis. Klara lies and says yes.

It is from this point that the spiral downward begins. Based solely on the words of Klara, what goes from a seemingly innocuous occurrence becomes the undoing of a genuine and normal man. Lucas is helpless as his life begins to fall apart around him and the town turns completely against him. Klara seems to begin understanding that she's made a mistake, but because she's so young the people around her assume that she simply doesn't want to remember the horrible thing they think happened to her. What's worse, other parents of other kids start to suspect that their children have been victimized too.

There are a few people who side with Lucas, but even their loyalty appears tenuous at times. But what can he do? It's his word against the word of a child, and soon other children too, and how could all of them be lying?

The Hunt is a haunting study of a very touchy subject. So often these kinds of films deal with monstrous people whom we are to hate and long for their comeuppance. But here we have an innocent man, and he is up against the preconceived notion that the words of children are trustworthy, and the unforgiving court of public opinion. It is truly horrifying, because you know that even if the truth somehow finds its way into light, there will still be those that reject it because it is so hard to believe that one's anger could be so unjustified.

Mads Mikkelsen is brilliant as Lucas. He relies on no grandiose speeches of his innocence, but rather the more realistic stunned, quiet terror of a man who is powerless against forces beyond his control. He is a trapped in a way that is awful to behold and seemingly hopeless. It is truly one of Mikkelsen's best performances, and in one of the best films of 2012.