After the Hunt Film Review: Brilliant & Tense

As a tense psychological thriller with a brilliant cast, After the Hunt may be one of Guadagnino’s best films to date.

Whether she likes it or not, Alma now has to make a choice in what is about to become a very public case that will force her to come to terms with her mysterious past.

With After the Hunt, Luca Guadagnino creates the perfect atmosphere for a psychological thriller, filled with tension, albeit with the occasional laughter, for almost the entirety of its relatively long runtime. The pacing of the film is excellent and will have the audience glued to the screen from beginning to end as it starts revealing more about its characters and their real personalities. This is also helped by the wonderful soundtrack with music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Its use of high-tempo classical music during some of the key moments of psychological turmoil makes these scenes even more tense and compelling to watch. 

The brilliant acting from the main cast also makes this movie stand out with their layered portrayals of a group of people who are ultimately flawed and at times unlikable. After the Hunt is a very character-driven film, but full of largely unlikeable characters who are more grey and complex than they are good. This may make it hard to root for them, but the emotional performances by the main cast make us immediately care about these fictional people, even when we find out the secrets that they have been hiding and the complex relationships that tie them to one another. In this sense, the film relies a lot on the element of mystery, particularly around Alma’s past, which will only be uncovered in the final act of the movie. 

During its runtime, After the Hunt deals with an array of sensitive topics. Some of this is bound to become controversial, or at least create a discussion around some of its plot elements due to the way the characters approach them. The people in the film are rarely perfect in the way they handle these, but as infuriating as that may be, this is what makes them so realistic in a story that could easily happen at a highly rated university, as well as in many other workplaces and institutions.

But the film might not have figured out what exactly it wants to tell us, and maybe that was the point all along. As it goes on, there are a lot of things it wants to comment on, from matters of class and racism in academia to discrimination against women and sexual assault in the workplace. After the Hunt touches on so much and yet does not give us a definite answer or commentary on either of those elements. While this may initially seem like a fault of the movie, it is not entirely. Guadagnino does not feed us the answers to any of these matters, but instead invites the audience to ponder these questions and make up their own minds about them. 

The writing is really good. From the very beginning, the necessary information about the socio-economic background of the characters and their past relationships is revealed in conflict and not all in one go. This makes it a lot more organic, natural, and overall more enjoyable for the audience. The way philosophy is included in After the Hunt is also very impressive, as the characters often talk about rather complicated – and somewhat obscure – theories and thinkers. Not only are their debates integrated very well within the context of the film, but these scenes end up revealing a lot about the characters themselves and what they want to be seen as from a few lines of dialogue alone. 

However, the philosophical metaphors are sometimes overused and can easily feel pretentious. On the one hand, it would be easy to get lost in the analysis of every single quote or thinker mentioned during After the Hunt and find its relevance to the film’s plot, which would easily make one lose focus on what is actually happening in the movie. On the other, it might make the dialogue slightly more difficult to follow for those in the audience who might not be familiar with all the philosophers that are mentioned in the movie, or the context behind many of the debates the characters are having.

This could make the dialogue feel a little repetitive at times and pretentious, which – as frustrating as it may be – might also very well be the point of including so many references to modern philosophy. Given the subject matter, it is natural to have a lot of philosophical debates included, but it seems like a missed opportunity to focus exclusively on the more recent philosophers – such as Heidegger, Hegel, and Kirgekaard, rather than the whole breadth of the topic. 

Tense thriller, grey characters, and very complicated relationships: this is what Guadagnino does best and After the Hunt proves it once more. If nothing else, it is definitely going to be a memorable and thought-provoking addition to the director’s works, one that sits very well with his previous filmography. The latest effort explores some of the themes we have seen explored by the director before, but in an entirely new setting and with a new level of stakes. 

After the Hunt had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August , 2025. The film will be released in theaters in New York and Los Angeles October 10, 2025, expanding nationwide on October 17, and in UK & Irish cinemas on October 22.