The Hunger Games Parody

You can watch The Hillywood Show's parody here. 


For a long time now, people have been asking The Hillywood Show to do a parody of The Hunger Games, so it has been my plan to see the movie at some point in order to be prepared for the possible parody. I thought I was ahead of the game, but then they announced, when the movie came out, that they had already filmed the parody. I thought it very possible then that the parody would debut before I had had a chance to see the movie. My plan was to go watch it this morning before my afternoon classes; before I left home, though, what did I see? The parody out already.

That was very sad and strange: usually I try and watch Hillywood's parodies the moment they come out, so to be sitting right in front of my computer screen with the opportunity to watch it but knowing that it would be best to wait until 5:30 when I got home at the end of the day felt entirely wrong. But it was all for the best that I waited: I only knew basics about The Hunger Games and wouldn't have been able to properly receive the parody before the movie.

I am only talking about the parody and not the movie because, honestly, the movie wasn't my favorite and I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to think of certain parts of it. To carry those feelings into the parody, I think it succeeded in capturing that disconcerting tone the movie has. Hilly and Hannah really do a good job at song choices, using the songs to help create the atmosphere of the movie, not just to parody it.

This parody is less laugh out loud than some of their work, but I think that's fitting for this movie. It is a disconcerting movie, and I think that certain directions parodies tend to go might be particularly disrespectful to what a movie like this is pointing out. I guess. So they found a nice balance.

I loved Hillary's role in the parody, mostly because I love seeing how well she manages to play male characters. She has a talent for adapting to different facial expressions. My last note to make is that we know they made this parody with strict budget and time restrictions (see the link at the end of the video to the behind-the-scenes: it was very exciting to find the making of already online--I'm used to having to wait months for that). So it's only one portion of the movie; but that's one portion well-presented, I would say.