Sometimes, there comes a movie that is shot on a low budget, but with its riveting dialogue and seriously good acting, it keeps the viewer engaged throughout its entire runtime. Unfortunately, Hunt Club, directed by Elizabeth Blake-Thomas, is not that kind of low-budget movie. It’s apparent that the budget for the film was pretty tight, and they spent most of it getting Mena Suvari and Mickey Rourke on board. The major flaw of the film is the dialogue written by David Lipper and John Saunders. The lackluster acting and editing don’t help elevate the movie at all. Sure, there are campy slasher moments that provide some pulpy fun, but the film doesn’t live up to its decent plot.
The narrative revolves around Cassandra, who befriends a suave gentleman and his son and agrees to go on a unique hunting affair on an island after they tell her about the hefty prize money. Cassandra realizes that the game they are hunting is not some animal but the women who were lured to come on the island just like her.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
Cassandra is attacked by a group of men after she comes out of a liquor store. Fortunately, Tessa comes around, fights the men, and saves Cassandra. A few months later, she arrives with Tessa in a pub where Carter and his teenage son Jackson are having a chat about the upcoming hunt. Carter was someone who wanted to make his son Jackson into a capable young man. His idea of a man seems a little outdated, though. He pushes his son to interact with Cassandra. Tessa is furious at Cassandra for entertaining Jackson’s advances and breaks up with her. Carter guides Jackson to pounce on the opportunity and invites Cassandra for their hunt, where the winner takes away the prize of a whopping 100 thousand dollars. Cassandra, who reveals that she just had a breakup with Tessa, could think of no better alternative to recover than to join them on the adventure.
On her way to the island, Cassandra meets Lexi, another girl accompanying two middle-aged brothers, to try her luck at winning the hundred grand. Cassandra is disappointed to see such a young girl having to be so desperate for money, but the young Lexi doesn’t listen to anybody and wants to do things her own way. Upon reaching the island, Cassandra initially feels there is nothing to be worried about, even though she and Lexi seem to be the only women on the island, surrounded by men. She wasn’t aware that Carter was running this special club for men to come and hunt if and only if they aligned themselves with his ideology, which involved hunting women in the jungle to reclaim their masculinity.
What Happens During The Hunt?
Carter used his son Jackson to lure Cassandra into joining the hunt. Others, such as Lexi, were scouted on different sites where students were looking to make quick bucks. On the island, Cassandra was worried for Jackson, who was clearly nervous about the upcoming hunt. It was going to be his first time, and he didn’t want to disappoint his father. His mother died in childbirth, and Carter raised him, instilling in him his own notions about masculinity and how to operate in the world. At night, Jackson and Cassandra chat for a long time, and Cassandra tries to calm him down. Meanwhile, Carter gathers around the new hunters, who were to hunt women during the night.
Two women are chosen at a time and let loose in the jungle, and if they survive for the next twenty-four hours, Carter promises to let them go free with the prize money. The game was rigged. The hunters were aware of the traps set in the jungle and had hand vehicles and a crossbow, while the poor girls ran barefoot and weaponless. They stood no chance, and soon, the two women were killed. After the “successful” hunt, Carter sneaks up on Cassandra to abduct her and put her alongside the rest of the “prey.” He didn’t know that Cassandra had Tessa to protect her from evil men such as Carter.
How Does Tessa Save Cassandra?
Carter’s right-hand man, Virgil, who was a hunter himself, took care of the women so that they couldn’t run away. Cassandra was put right beside the other women in the barn and tied to the wall. Carter waited for the morning when his son would make him proud by participating in his first hunt. He didn’t know that his plan was going to be soiled by Cassandra’s girlfriend, Tessa. In the morning, despite Jackson not choosing to hunt Cassandra, Carter ensures that she ends up running scared in the jungle. Jackson is livid with his father but doesn’t have the courage to stand up against him. Being afraid himself, he isn’t able to kill Cassandra. She runs deep into the jungle and finds an abominable dumping ground for the victims from the previous hunts.
Tessa had infiltrated Carter’s hunting club and had a face-off with Virgil and his men but escaped to save Cassandra. It was revealed only when Cassandra was running for her life that she had a GPS placed in her earring, which helped Tessa locate her exact location. Jackson didn’t know that, and right when he approached the dump, Tessa and Cassandra overpowered him. Cassandra had discovered her daughter’s locket near the dead bodies, which meant that she had died at the hands of the evil men who participated in the hunt.
How Do Cassandra And Tessa Put An End To Carter’s Evil Club?
During her vulnerable moment in the night with Jackson, before she was kidnapped by Carter, Cassandra revealed that her daughter had gone missing a few months ago after she went on a date with a guy she met online. Apparently, her daughter had been lured into the hunt, and Virgil had killed her, which was why her locket was found near the bodies. Cassandra knew that Carter’s hunting club was operating on the dark web and had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance. She had become an alcoholic and was saved by Tessa who gave her a reason to live. Reaching the island was their plan all along. It was the reason why she and Tessa acted the way they did at the diner, so as to make Carter ask her to go to the island, where she could find the clues about her missing daughter. Alas! She was long dead, and the next best thing for Cassandra was to save Lexi and the other girls in the barn, who were just like her daughters and were now in danger of dying in the hunt. Cassandra and Tessa don’t spare anybody on the island and go on a killing spree, hurting men who were trying to be “alphas” by trying to hunt women. The duo gets Virgil, and then Tessa goes to save Lexi, who had been raped by the brothers. Cassandra goes after Carter and discovers a file with the names of the club members who were betting on the hunt from different parts of the world.
Carter managed to sneak up behind Cassandra’s back, and for a moment, it looked like he would kill her, but she managed to thwart his plan. Before she can kill him, Carter tries to dissuade her from crossing that line, as that would remove the moral difference between the two. They would both be deemed killers. Cassandra had something better in mind. She takes Carter to the barn and lets the women left alive do as they please with him and then walk away with the prize money. Tessa, Cassandra, and Lexi (who reveals her real name as Diana) leave the island, hearing Carter’s screams. The three names all refer to ‘the goddesses of the hunt,’ and they make a pact to go after the rest of the men in the club who had escaped justice. Jackson, who was left alive by Cassandra because she knew that deep down he wasn’t like his father at all, shows up with the boat, and they sail away, leaving the deadly island behind.
