The Hive

Right, well I gave "The Hive" a chance without knowing what it was, aside from it being a horror movie and having an interesting movie cover.

Turns out that director David Yarovesky didn't really tickle me in the right places with this 2014 movie. It was watchable for sure, but it was hardly an entertaining movie or a movie that I felt myself delving into as things progressed on the screen.

I will say that the special effects and the atmosphere portrayed and used in the movie were good, and they carried the movie quite the distance, because the movie was suffering from an inadequate script and plot.

The acting in the movie was fairly adequate, taking into consideration the anchor the actors and actresses had around their feet in terms of a lack of proper storyline and script. I enjoy watching a movie where the performers are unfamiliar faces, so that at least worked in favor of the movie.

I managed to sit through "The Hive" to the end, but I can't claim to have been thoroughly entertained by what I was watching. The movie is definitely watchable, but not an outstanding movie in the horror genre.

For me, at least, "The Hive" is a movie that came and went without leaving a dent or impression in anything. Actually so much that it wasn't before 5 years later after the movie was released that I came to know about it - and that was by sheer random luck. This is not a movie that warrants a second viewing by any means, because the movie just lacked the contents to support that.

The Hive is a solid blend of horror norms wrapped around a central theme of loss of identity. Set in a slasher film's summer camp cliché, what the producers of The Hive want you to believe is that you're here to see a zombie film. In reality, this is an interesting take on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers trope, told with a Memento-style narrative of interwoven flashbacks as our protagonists (and "others") memories return. The events leading to the amnesia are an important plot point, and the flashbacks become multi- faceted as the story fleshes out.

The Hive is advertised as shot in "Vine-Style" with no single shot lasting more than ten seconds. The conscious decision to edit the film this way seems inconsequential for the majority of the film, but when combined with the flashbacks, we do slip into short periods of incoherency. More distressing is early on, as Adam (Gabriel Basso) is being introduced. Alone and without memories, the director uses a series of rapid jump cuts to convey his leads anger and frustration, which is simply distracting to the viewer. The editing choices also mean we never linger on a particular image, which is a shame because certain moments have great framing and make perfect use of the high contrast.

Due to the direction, Basso does not convey a strong lead in the weak first act of the film, but he is type-cast well. David Yarovesky recovers from these initial stumbles, showing his strongest instincts lie in the teen romance scenes. Adams chemistry with Katie (Kathryn Prescott) starts to turn things around, and as the film progresses he becomes a more believable character. Jacob Zachar is not given a well conceived character arc, but none the less has an excellent turn as Clark. Prescott remains a charming presence throughout, even in the more tense moments. The secondary cast all put in solid horror movie performances, with only Gabrielle Walsh treading hammy.

The production values, while misguided and heavy handed at times, are strong. The film is heavily filtered, so natural lighting is never neutral and the the majority of the interior cabin shots make full use of exploiting blacklights to give a distinct look to the films present time frame. The general aesthetics will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent any time with the famed Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies video game. You might question the speed in which the main cabin deteriorates, as well as the extremes in which the children's cabin has been effected later in the movie. These set choices are seemingly to promote atmosphere but mostly miss.

What does promote the atmosphere is the music, easily the strongest aspect of The Hive and yet still not without flaw. The rather well shot scene of Adam and Katie in the clinic is adversely affected by the soundtrack, but the moments of tension and horror are perfectly scored. The use of Steve Aoki's tracks are fitting and complimenting.

After a summer season that included Unfriended, The Gallows and The Poltergeist remake, as well as sharing theater retail space with The Visit, The Hive is certainly an above-board film to the horror fetishist. It hangs hope on its high concept of loss of identity to stick with you after the credits roll, while limiting the jump scares and turning up the gross out factor with vomiting. The story is intriguing, and the flashbacks of the scientists involved in creating this situation particularly strong. It has weak direction and contrived narrative devices in play, but it is well worth the watch and certainly more deserving of wide release.

I will say that I enjoyed this movie. Now I know there were some things in the movie I didn't believe completely meshed well and some scenes weren't explained well enough for me but overall I think they did a really good job.

Went in this movie thinking that it could be a host of many clichéd themes and I should be prepared to drop it at the half way mark in the movie. After the 30 minute mark I can say that the movie had me at a point where I needed to watch it till the end. Now the ending was not as exciting as I hoped for but at least it gave me some type of finality.

Now I know my review wasn't very descriptive on the storyline or the characters but I will say this, try to avoid any reviews that give anything away. The movie is much better when you have no clue on what's going on from the very beginning.

For being an isolated out of the way minimal actors movie.

It was really well thought out and well done and tied together. Not something that happens in a lot of movies.

Ok,the black barf isn't all that great. But the idea & execution of it. I'd like to know who that was to was more

Deserves recognition for bringing a different angle to the vampire/zombie/horror genre's well-worn formula, although on reflection very little really happens and a lot is left unexplained. The young leads do well.