The Hunt

I don’t think I’ve seen a movie that is more gripping than this. Last time I was this engaged while watching a movie was when I watched the Shining for the first time a while back. This is a Danish psychological drama about a preschool teacher who is accused of abusing one of his students, sending him on a downward spiral as his town falls into mass hysteria and believes the accusation to be true. The movie does a great job at making you care for him, and what happens to him throughout the film is absolutely heartbreaking and shocking. It is extremely powerful stuff. It’s a cautionary tale on jumping to conclusions and mob mentality, but it also works as a great character study. This movie explores trauma and how it can spread, as many of the bad actions characters make in this movie come from their trauma. Nearly every character’s trauma is explored in this movie, making you care for even the most minor characters. The way one girl’s trauma over neglect from her parents is portrayed is so realistic that it becomes hard to separate from reality. The acting is also phenomenal, the lead actor in this should’ve won an Oscar. Even the child actors are great, which is rare for movies. I don’t want to say more because I think everyone should watch this movie. It’s in another language, but that does not drag down the experience in the slightest. I wish Hollywood made foreign movies more accessible to the public, because majority of Americans miss out on great and emotionally devastating movies like this.