While Justin Lee's 2022 feature-film adaptation of the iconic pulp-action short story "The Most Dangerous Game" premiered, this violent, lower-flying Canadian competitor also entered the marketplace. Directed by Neil Mackay, Death Hunt has some minor virtues, but they mostly remain minor.
Commercial land developer Ray (Omar Tucci) follows a business pitch to a rather unfriendly rural community with a bribe to the mayor, then plans a local vacation idyll with his mistress Marlene (Brooke Hamilton). Ray and Marlene are waylaid by a neighborhood cop (Greg Johnston, who co-produced) who roughly delivers them to two other area rednecks (Rick Amsbury, Terry McDonald).
The couple first assumes a robbery. In truth, the outdoorsy trio has followed a five-year pattern of kidnapping strangers and hunting them to their deaths on a nearby island (hints indicate that this takes place in Michigan, on the Great Lakes). Early on it is established (and ad campaigns reinforce) that, despite actor Tucci's faint Liam Neeson resemblance, it will be slim, chiseled Marlene who fights more ferociously against the human predators.
After a neatly paranoid opening (like Marion Crane's embezzlement scheme in Psycho, the white-collar-crime opener is just a false feint for the real horror), the plot settles down to decently acted but B-grade sadism and stunts. When the bad guys turn to launch grenades, one feels the whole thing descending into the high-grade schlock territory the same premise did with Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target, Ice-T in Surviving the Game, etc.
There is an attempt at contemporary relevance by overlaying Trump's values on the three (white) homicidal hunters, social-conservative hypocrites who bemoan Detroit's crime rate, criticize Ray's adultery and luxuriate in an island hunting shack decorated by an American and a Confederate flag (boo, hiss). Yet there are also suggestions this plot unfolds in the pre-cellphone era (hence no White House Tweets), so debate amongst yourselves. One thing not open to debate: the derivative title makes an optional purchase at best for thriller library shelves.