My three immediate reactions to 'Happy hunting,' in sequential order: First, "Couldn't be happening to a worse person." Second, "good riddance." Third, "Jordan Hahn has made a compelling argument for the abolition of streamers, YouTubers, the Internet, and yes, humans at large."
This short is well made. The concept mashes together a few familiar sci-fi ideas, flavored with the pungent stench of obnoxious Internet personalities seeking ever more hits. The landscape around unlikable protagonist Tyler (Damian Joseph Quinn) is sufficiently nondescript that it could pass for an Earth-like planet around another star; the semi-autonomous drone he employs is plausible enough; and the overlaid graphics visualizing Tyler's livestream plainly echo the interface of well-known contemporary platforms.
I tend to enjoy the science fiction trope of "breathable air, with one big catch," and 'Happy hunting' plays in this space while equipping Tyler with gear that looks good while still being generic enough that no one in the audience will question it.
And then there's the crux of this short - the hunting. As if Tyler's insufferably bro-tastic demeanor weren't foul enough on its own, the recreation he's engaged in is truly abhorrent. The seemingly unhindered intelligence of the "prey" he encounters readily repudiates the flawed reasoning, apparently common in-universe, that he applies to hunt them. These 8 minutes don't tell us enough about the setting to determine if Tyler's hunting is officially sanctioned in some capacity, or if it's just a pastime of a future century's ne'er-do-wells, but one can guess it's the former. In any case, the reactions of his viewers and subscribers, as noted through the visual overlays, clearly denote widespread approval. A needlessly sugarcoated assessment of the core of the narrative depicted here may say it's "morally ambiguous"; a more honest description would simply be "reprehensible." The air of dystopia is imparted in a wide, open, and mostly uninhabited space.
It may sound like I'm judging 'Happy hunting' based on the palatability of its content, but this is not so. True, the sheer detestableness of Tyler, and apparently of many others in-universe, quickly grows tiresome and off-putting. Yet make no mistake - this short is pretty solid, if not especially remarkable. It feels like equal part commentary and dry parody, casting a discerning gaze upon the modern Internet and various YouTubers or streamers in real-life who have engaged in some extremely repugnant activities.
This is a bit predictable, in that even without the content warning offered by sites hosting the video, we can quickly guess where the plot is headed. If annoying, and not entirely satisfying, the concept at hand is engaging - and believable, as a scenario that could play out in distant time and space. It's no great revelation, but 'Happy hunting' is a well done sci-fi short film, worth checking out if you come across it.
