Human hunting
Encyclopedia
Human hunting is a quasi-urban legend
, where certain people hunt and kill humans for the purpose of pleasure
, entertainment
, or sustenance
. Serial killer
Robert Hansen
would abduct and hunt his victims before killing them. The Beltway sniper attacks
hunted their victims at gas stations and stores with big parking lots. Some science fiction
writers depicted fictional future or alternate history tyrannical regimes where the hunting of humans for sport is institutionalised (see The Sound of His Horn
).
, which is based on the Richard Edward Connell short story of the same name
. Other films that deal with human hunting are:
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
, where certain people hunt and kill humans for the purpose of pleasure
Pleasure
Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...
, entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
, or sustenance
Sustenance
Sustenance can refer to any means of subsistence or livelihood within a region or a country;*food*any subsistence economy: see list of subsistence techniques**hunting-gathering**animal husbandry**subsistence agriculture...
. Serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Robert Hansen
Robert Hansen
Robert Christian Hansen is an American serial killer. Between 1980 and 1983, Hansen murdered between 17 and 21 women near Anchorage, Alaska.- Early life :Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa to Christian and Edna Hansen...
would abduct and hunt his victims before killing them. The Beltway sniper attacks
Beltway sniper attacks
The Washington sniper attacks took place during three weeks in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed and three others critically injured in various locations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia...
hunted their victims at gas stations and stores with big parking lots. Some science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writers depicted fictional future or alternate history tyrannical regimes where the hunting of humans for sport is institutionalised (see The Sound of His Horn
The Sound of His Horn
The Sound of His Horn is a 1952 dystopian time travel/alternate history novel by the senior British diplomat John William Wall, written with the pseudonym Sarban. It relates the story of a British naval lieutenant, Alan Querdillon who, after becoming a POW during the Battle of Crete awakens in a...
).
Films
Numerous films have used the theme of human hunting as the basis or as a feature of their plot. The first film to ever feature it was the 1932 film The Most Dangerous GameThe Most Dangerous Game (film)
The Most Dangerous Game is a 1932 Pre-Code adaptation of the 1924 short story of the same name by Richard Connell, the first film version of that story. The plot concerns a big game hunter on an island who chooses to hunt humans for sport. The film stars Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks, and King Kong...
, which is based on the Richard Edward Connell short story of the same name
The Most Dangerous Game
"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell. It was published in Collier's Weekly on January 19, 1924....
. Other films that deal with human hunting are:
Television
- BonanzaBonanzaBonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
- The final episode of the long-running western, titled "The Hunter" featured "Little" Joe Cartwright, played by Michael LandonMichael LandonMichael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
, being hunted by a war-deranged ex-Army officer. The villain—who fancies himself as a hunter—steals Joe's supplies, water and wagon, then allows him to flee as his "prey," before later going after him to kill him. Joe is forced to rely on his wits and luck to defeat the villain. - Cold Case - The character of George Marks, played by John BillingsleyJohn BillingsleyJohn Billingsley is an American actor, known for his role as Doctor Phlox on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise.-Career:...
, is shown hunting his victims in forests, much like the real-life serial killerSerial killerA serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Robert HansenRobert HansenRobert Christian Hansen is an American serial killer. Between 1980 and 1983, Hansen murdered between 17 and 21 women near Anchorage, Alaska.- Early life :Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa to Christian and Edna Hansen...
. - Criminal MindsCriminal MindsCriminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
- The episode Open Season revolves around two brothers who kidnap people and release them in the Idaho wilderness and hunt them down with compound bowCompound bowA compound bow is a modern bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs.The limbs of a compound bow are much stiffer than those of a recurve bow or longbow. This limb stiffness makes the compound bow more energy-efficient than other bows, in conjunction with the...
s. - Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
- In the serial The Deadly AssassinThe Deadly AssassinThe Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...
the Doctor enters a virtual reality and is hunted by an assassin in a jungle environment. - Human GiantHuman GiantHuman Giant is a sketch comedy show on MTV, starring writer/performers Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer and directed primarily by Jason Woliner.The show has completed two seasons. The status of a third season is unknown...
- One sketch featured astronaut Cliff Tarpey (Rob HuebelRob HuebelRob Huebel is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant. He currently co-stars on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital.-Early life:...
) who created his own reality TV show called "Lunatics" in which he and two other astronauts capture people, hunt them down and kill them on the moon, for entertainment purposes. - The Incredible Hulk - David BannerHulk (comics)The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
is befriended by a rich man under false pretenses. Later, he is hunted until he hulks out and attacks his antagonist. - Johnny BravoJohnny BravoJohnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
- In an episode parodying Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game". - Lone Star Hate - a documentaryDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
that examines a hate crimeHate crimeIn crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
homicideHomicideHomicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
where the victim had been hunted in the wilderness for some considerable time by his homophobicHomophobiaHomophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
killers before being shot dead. - RenegadeRenegade (TV series)Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning 5 seasons between September 19, 1992 and April 4, 1997.The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native...
- one episode featured convicts being hunted for fun/as target practice by novice/wannabe assassins. - The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
- The episode "Treehouse of Horror XVITreehouse of Horror XVI"Treehouse of Horror XVI" is the fourth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons, as well as the sixteenth "Treehouse of Horror" episode. In this year's installment, The Simpsons replace Bart with a robot son after Bart falls into a coma in "B.I.: Bartificial Intelligence," Homer and...
" featured a section which also parodiesParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game". - SupernaturalSupernatural (TV series)Supernatural is an American supernatural and horror television series created by Eric Kripke, which debuted on September 13, 2005 on The WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the brothers as they...
- An episode in season one portrays a family of inbreeders whose generational past-time is the hunting and killing of the random people they kidnap. It is notably one of only two episodes where brother detectives, Sam and Dean Winchester, actually confront human "monsters", rather than the "supernatural" boogeymen, the derived namesake of the show. - TorchwoodTorchwoodTorchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
- The episode entitled "CountrycideCountrycide"Countrycide" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It is the sixth episode of the first series, which was broadcast on 19 November 2006-Synopsis:...
" of the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
science fiction series deals with a group of cannibals who hunt/trap travellers through their village on a traditional ten year cycle. - DollhouseDollhouseA dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is common in the United States and Canada...
- The second episode of the first season sees main character Echo taken on a date by the client in the countryside, and then is hunted by him. - The CriticThe CriticThe Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
- In one of the running gags during the main credits, Jay's boss Duke calls him, inviting Jay to his ranch upon the news that Duke has received legal permission to hunt man. Jay is advised to bring "jogging shoes". - Xena: Warrior PrincessXena: Warrior PrincessXena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
- In the sixth season episode "Dangerous Prey", Xena and Varia are hunted by a madman who has been kidnapping and hunting Amazons for sport, in search of a challenge worthy of his skills as a hunter. - CommunityCommunityThe term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
- Season 2 Episode 2 - Pierce tells the group that there is an island in Indonesia where you can hunt humans. - CSI: MiamiCSI: MiamiCSI: Miami is an American police procedural television series, which premiered on September 23, 2002 on CBS. The series is a spin-off of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation....
- Season 9 Episode 16- The CSI team discovers a club that hunts human prey. - American Dad - Season 3 Episode 1 - The Smith family become castaways after getting separated from their cruise ship. They eventually wash up on an island and find themselves being hunted for sport by the rich people living there. After several harrowing days, the hunters find and shoot the entire family, at which point they realize the island is a theme park based on "The Most Dangerous Game" and the hunters were actually armed with paintball guns.
Novel/comic/short stories
- In Nancy MitfordNancy MitfordNancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
's The Pursuit of LoveThe Pursuit of LoveThe Pursuit of Love is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars...
, Lord Alconleigh uses bloodhounds to hunt his children across the OxfordshireOxfordshireOxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
countryside - Battle RoyaleBattle Royalethumb|260px|Cover of the 2009 expanded edition, ISBN 978-1-4215-2772-3 is a 1999 Japanese novel written by Koushun Takami. The story tells of schoolchildren who are forced to fight each other to the death....
- Button ManButton ManButton Man is a comic strip created for leading British comic 2000 AD, written by John Wagner and illustrated by Arthur Ranson.-Plot:...
- Eagle StrikeEagle StrikeEagle Strike is the fourth book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2003 and in the United States on April 12, 2004.-Chart performance:-Plot:...
- The Fifth ElephantThe Fifth ElephantThe Fifth Elephant is the 24th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. It introduces the clacks, a long-distance semaphore system. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award in 2000.-Plot summary:...
- Friday the 13th: The Jason Strain
- Hunger Games
- The InvisiblesThe InvisiblesThe Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....
- The Manhattan Hunt Club
- The Most Dangerous GameThe Most Dangerous Game"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell. It was published in Collier's Weekly on January 19, 1924....
- The Sound of His HornThe Sound of His HornThe Sound of His Horn is a 1952 dystopian time travel/alternate history novel by the senior British diplomat John William Wall, written with the pseudonym Sarban. It relates the story of a British naval lieutenant, Alan Querdillon who, after becoming a POW during the Battle of Crete awakens in a...
- Trail of the Dead
- Dune: House AtreidesDune: House AtreidesDune: House Atreides is a 1999 science fiction novel by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. It is the first book in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy, which takes place before the events of Frank Herbert's celebrated 1965 novel Dune...
Videogames
- Suikoden IVSuikoden IVis a console role-playing game developed and published by Konami for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console and the fourth installment of the Suikoden video game series...
contains a back scenario where aristocrats from the Scarlet Moon empire engaged in a cruel hobby dubbed "human-hunting". - Deer Avenger and its sequels revolve around a bipedal, talking deerDeerDeer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
which hunts humans, especially hunters, in order to avenge his fellow deer which have been hunted. - The Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a single-player action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games...
includes a quest (titled "Caught in the Hunt") which revolves around the player becoming the target of a human hunt. - Hitman: ContractsHitman: ContractsHitman: Contracts is a stealth game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the third entry in the Hitman series, followed by Hitman: Blood Money....
contains a level where the protagonist must rescue the potential victim of a human hunt from an English manor. - ManhuntManhunt (video game)Manhunt is a stealth game developed by Rockstar Games. It was released to the public on November 18, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 console, and on April 20, 2004 for Xbox and PC. Although it was generally well-received by critics, Manhunt created a controversy due to the graphic violence the player...
revolves around a fictitious convicted murderer, James Earl Cash, who is forced to hunt other convicts as part of a snuff filmSnuff filmA snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
. - Smash TVSmash TVSmash TV is a 1990 arcade game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams. Home versions were developed for various platforms and most were published by Acclaim Entertainment.-Description:...
is based on a fictional TV game show in which the main character is put in an arena to fight waves of clones for money and prizes.
See also
- GladiatorGladiatorA gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
- HuntingHuntingHunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
- LynchingLynchingLynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
- Snuff filmSnuff filmA snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
- Thrill killingThrill killingA thrill killing is a term used to describe a premeditated murder committed by a person who is not necessarily suffering from mental instability, and does not derive sexual satisfaction from killing victims, or have anything against them, and sometimes do not know them, but is instead motivated by...
- SadismSadistic personality disorderSadistic personality disorder is a diagnosis which appeared only in an appendix of the revised third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . The current version of the DSM does not include it, so it is no longer considered a valid...
- Sadism and masochism as medical termsSadism and masochism as medical termsIn psychiatry, the terms sadism and masochism describe a personality type characterized by the actor or actrix deriving pleasure and gratification from inflicting physical pain and humiliation ; and from suffering pain and humiliation upon the self ; such pleasure often is sexual, but not...
- Premeditated murderPremeditated murderPremeditated murder is the crime of wrongfully causing the death of another human being after rationally considering the timing or method of doing so, in order to either increase the likelihood of success, or to evade detection or apprehension.State laws in the United States vary as to definitions...
- The Sound of His HornThe Sound of His HornThe Sound of His Horn is a 1952 dystopian time travel/alternate history novel by the senior British diplomat John William Wall, written with the pseudonym Sarban. It relates the story of a British naval lieutenant, Alan Querdillon who, after becoming a POW during the Battle of Crete awakens in a...
External links
- The OnionThe OnionThe Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
once had an article spoofing human hunting called "Maverick Hunter's 'Human Beings As Prey' Plan Not As Challenging As Expected"