The Hunt Film Difficulty Ranking: 2
If you’re a teacher, The Hunt is your worst nightmare. Set in a small town in Denmark, The Hunt shows how one lie can bring down a credible and likeable man and turn him into the victim of a modern day witch hunt.
From: Denmark, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Amazon Prime, Amazon (rent)
Next: Festen, The Shining, Gone Girl
Why Watch The Hunt?
- To see a teacher’s worst nightmare
- For a stoic Mads Mikkelsen
- To get a very small serving of Danish Dark humour
- If you liked Gone Girl
The Breakdown
The Hunt starts with a group of danish men jumping half naked into a public lake with other families. They’re obviously a group of friends from school, as they’re still acting like it.
From there the camera follows one of the men, Lucas (Mads Mikkelson), a nursery supply teacher. It’s clear that he loves his job and the kids love him as he spends most of his screen time at the nursery chasing them and playing with them.
However, Klara, the 5 year old daughter of his best friend, takes a bit of a liking to him and his dog. It’s a clear representation of Freud’s Oedipal complex. As her dad is engrossed in arguing with her mum, he is unavailable, so she wanders off and finds another father figure – Lucas. Unfortunately for Lucas she takes too much of a liking to him, kissing him on the lips in a play fight at the nursery and sending him a heart letter.
The Turning Point
Lucas softly reprimands her for her naive advances but crucially doesn’t report what happened – probably because she’s just the innocent child of his best friend. He pays for his mistakes. In the next scene a Chuckie-esque Klara sits at the office table in the darkness and tells the head of the nursery that Lucas showed her his willy.
As everyone in this village trusts kids, the fallout is big.
What to Watch Next
If you’re looking for more creepy children, check out Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Or if you’re looking for more creepy women who are out to take down men check out Gone Girl.
Or you could watch Festen, another film by Thomas Vinterberg focusing on pedophilia.
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