Hunt Club should be a film that I like watching. It offers a take on The Most Dangerous Game trope, twisting the idea of men hunting other humans by adding a feminist revenge plot more akin to I Spit On Your Grave. It includes a star-studded cast that is unusual in independent horror, such as Mena Suvari, Casper Van Dien and even Mickey Rourke. On paper, this film ought to be gory, fun and tap into that thrill you get when rotten people get what they deserve. Unfortunately, this time it all goes wrong, as almost none of it works.

The film centers around a group of wealthy men whose toxicity is telegraphed from the first moment we get introduced to their leader Carter (Van Dien.) His son Jackson (Will Peltz) is about to have his first experience at the generically named ‘Hunt Club’ and the parallel between the toxic male fascination with losing one’s virginity and coming to this club for the first time is far from the last obvious commentary in the film. When Cassandra (Suvari) is left alone after a fight with her girlfriend, Jackson invites her to the club for their next hunt. Add about 3 minutes of introduction for every other character in the film and the plot is off to the races.

Again, a good revenge film can be fun to watch and the real reason Cassandra and her girlfriend fought could have turned this film into something really engaging. But there is such a lack of character development with even the main characters that is becomes very hard to invest in anyone. Each character ends up feeling largely one-note (Carter is evil, Jackson is swayed by whoever talks to him, Cassandra is angry, etc.) and so it never quite seems to matter who lives and who dies.

Worse still, I am not sure exactly what the ultimate point of this film wants to be. By adding overt toxic masculinity to the idea of hunting humans, the film clearly wants the audience to sympathize with the women who are being used as objects by these men. However, the film itself objectifies these same women by having them assaulted, left in skimpy clothes and then slaughtered with little regard for them as characters or even as plot points. For instance, if the goal is to hunt a woman, why are there traps on the island that can kill them? Doesn’t that deny the entire point of why they are there if you don’t actually kill them yourself?

The film suffers repeatedly from issues like the above. Characters change their minds without clear reasons why. Characters are ordered to do things and then that order is never mentioned again. Characters make choices that seem foolish even in a horror story because the character has been defined as knowing better in just the previous scene. Horror movies often require some suspension of disbelief in order to enjoy them but this film stretches that suspension until it snaps.

Hunt Club should be great. But with an under-utilized cast, a script that confuses more than it excites and a message that gets lost due to its own choices, the film ends up being something that no one should hunt for as entertainment.