Need more after Mrs. Davis? Stream Betty Gilpin & Damon Lindelof's other team-up The Hunt on Peacock

If you're watching Peacock's wild new genre series Mrs. Davis, there's a good chance you've already become hooked on the performance of its star, Betty Gilpin, who shines as Sister Simone. That means you might be on the lookout for more projects starring Gilpin, and that could take you any number of places, from GLOW to Gaslit. 

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But if you'd like to watch Gilpin show off her genre chops in another project that's right there to watch on Peacock, you might want to check out The Hunt. It's a film that's become better known for things other than its content, but if you find nothing else in its runtime, you will certainly find a fantastic Betty Gilpin performance to carry the whole thing.

Released in 2020 shortly before the pandemic lockdowns closed movie theaters, and mired in controversy prior to its release due to misunderstandings over its plot, The Hunt is a high-concept thriller that, like Mrs. Davis, was co-written by Damon Lindelof and stars Gilpin as a determined young woman who's going to survive no matter what. This time around, Gilpin plays Crystal, an army veteran who's one of several people taken captive and placed in the middle of a Most Dangerous Game-style human hunt. The source of this deranged plot is, apparently, a group of wealthy elites who have given reality to a widespread conspiracy theory that wealthy liberals are hunting "deplorables" for sport. Unfortunately for the hunters, Crystal's got some serious survival skills, and she also has no qualms about killing anyone who gets in her way.

The Hunt brings the twists

What happens in The Hunt is, of course, more complicated than the controversial premise suggested by its first trailers, and the script by Lindelof and Nick Cuse lays out plenty of twisty genre fun along the road to revealing all of its secrets. But for all its thriller plotting, The Hunt is also designed as a bit of an ensemble character piece, and its core is Gilpin. 

As Crystal, a woman who's definitely been through some serious stuff in her past and isn't necessarily over it yet, Gilpin displays many of the skills that would eventually make her nail what Mrs. Davis required. She has, for starters, wonderful deadpan comic timing, which she brings to all the moments of violent absurdity running through the film. There's also a sense of fearlessness and intensity that carries her from scene to scene, whether it's exploding out of her or just simmering down low behind her eyes, waiting for the moment when the heat is turned up.

Then, of course, there's the action. Though it's not nearly as strange and far-reaching as Mrs. Davis, The Hunt has a little of the same flavor when it comes to the ways that it uses violence. Action sequences unfold in unexpected ways despite the use of conventional weaponry, blending black comedy and sheer brutality to create something you hopefully can't stop watching. Gilpin meshes with that environment perfectly as Crystal, adding weight to the serious moments and levity to the funny ones. It's a great performance, so much so that it often feels like Gilpin is towering over the rest of the movie.

So, if you want more Betty Gilpin, and you've seen all of her great TV work, give The Hunt a try, and join the club of fans who are itching for her to get more action movie roles.

The Hunt is now streaming on Peacock. New episodes of Mrs. Davis arrive Thursdays.