Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’
The Big Picture
The Hunger Games franchise highlights the inhumane and terrifying nature of the titular gladiatorial competition, where innocent children are forced to fight to the death for the sick pleasure of the elite. The series serves as a warning about what society can become when freedom of choice and liberty are taken away by the rich and powerful, emphasizing thrills and terror over action and adventure. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes captures the true primal horror of the games with a smaller-scale and more primitive setting, visceral and brutal fight scenes, and a profound feeling of lingering horror.
The infamous and dystopian sci-fi franchise has returned years after the end of Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) story with a prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which illuminates the history of the horrific gladiatorial competition known as the Hunger Games. “Horrific” really is the opportune word here, as the titular competition that the blockbuster franchise is named after is inhumane at best and terrifying at worst. This is something that the charismatic villains of the franchise, such as scientist Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) and notorious future Panem President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), know very well. Their warped view of justice and peace revolves around throwing twenty-four innocent children in an arena and seeing them fight to the death, all for their own sick pleasure and a faux need for punishment.
For good reason, The Hunger Games franchise is often described as an action-adventure series. The gladiatorial games feature plenty of elaborate action set pieces that see its many main characters showcase their skills as they fight for survival. However, we would argue that, at its core, The Hunger Games is less about action and adventure and more about thrills and terror. After all, dystopian stories like The Hunger Games often serve as a warning of what society can become if freedom of choice and liberty are taken by the rich and powerful.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) — the last hope for the once-proud Snow family — who is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12 for the 10th Hunger Games. Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will become a songbird or a snake.
Release Date November 17, 2023
Director Francis Lawrence
Cast Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Viola Davis, Tom Blyth, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Burn Gorman, Fionnula Flanagan
Rating PG-13
Runtime 165 minutes
Genres Sci-Fi, Drama, Thriller
Writers Michael Lesslie, Michael Arndt, Suzanne Collins
Production Company Color Force, Good Universe, Lionsgate
The Concept of ‘The Hunger Games’ Is Inherently Disturbing
Image via Lionsgate
In both the original saga following Katniss and the recently released prequel, we learn the Hunger Games were designed to strike fear into the heart of Panem’s twelve districts, punishing them all for a war that most weren’t even alive for. In every year since the first war’s conclusion, the Capitol selects two children, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, from each of the districts and forces them to fight until a lone victor remains. Forcing anyone to fight to the death against their will is the definition of evil, but making innocent children perform this act makes it that much scarier. Just like the first It film is terrifying because Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) torments children, The Hunger Games is that much scarier given the young age of the combatants.
As seen in the first film, most of the incredibly young contestants, like Rue (Amandla Stenberg), don’t even have a chance in the arena, because the older opponents rush straight to them in order to deal with one less rival. Being PG-13, the deaths are mostly off-screen, both intentionally and unintentionally since the film has some pretty infamous shaky cam (but that’s another story altogether). Still, the implication of children perishing for some sick game is abhorrent and terrifying to think about. Killing innocent kids is something that even some of the bloodiest and most risqué slasher movies wouldn’t dare touch, yet the deranged elite in the Capitol relish that as a form of entertainment.
‘The Hunger Games’ Universe Is Filled to the Brim With Horrific Monsters
Image via Lionsgate
Apart from the bleak, dystopian society, the futuristic world of The Hunger Games is largely pretty terrestrial and similar to our own world. Except, that is, for the creation of biological monsters, which further reinforces The Hunger Games series as a horror franchise. Though many of these creatures may look like ordinary animals, most of these muttations (commonly referred to as mutts) have terrifying abilities that can only be described as otherworldly.
One of the earliest mutts we ever see in the franchise are the dog-like animals that pursue Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) in their first games. They’re much more stealthy and agile than your average canine, and yet they’re still not nearly as deadly as some of the other creatures in the later films. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire depicts monkey-like mutts that use their large numbers to overwhelm their prey. However, perhaps the scariest of them all are the humanoid and lizard-like creatures in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 that kill Finnick (Sam Claflin). These almost look like they were ripped straight out of an Alien movie.
The Franchise Is Scarier Than Ever in ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’
While all horrifying in their own ways, none of The Hunger Games movies capture the true primal horror of the games quite like The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Strangely enough, what makes the tenth annual Hunger Games so much more disturbing than those to come more than sixty years later is how much more primitive it is and on such a smaller scale. Instead of having a sprawling forest environment like in The Hunger Games or the jungle in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the games in the prequel take place in an incredibly cramped arena that has only a handful of places to hide.
The way that the director, Francis Lawrence, conveys the games also feels much more visceral and brutal, with the opening fight of the games feeling less like an action sequence and more like a morbid loss of life. Then comes the obligatory monster invasion introduced by Gamemaker Dr. Gaul (who exudes the bravado of a classic scary movie mad scientist). This time, a “rainbow of death” descends on the field with many multicolored snakes, which devour all but one of the remaining tributes in these barbaric games. As Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) barely survives this ordeal, she is left with a profound feeling of lingering horror that may very well follow her for the rest of her life, just like it will for the audience.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is in theaters now. The Hunger Games movies are currently streaming on Peacock.
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