The Hive

The Hive Directed by David Yarovesky. Written by David Yarovesky and Will Honley

Sometimes Fathom events will have a one night only screening of some independent movie usually of the horror variety. These movies have fascinated me every time I see them. I wonder how they get picked. What makes Primal Rage, The Hive and The Final Wish eligible for inclusion? Fathom events are usually special events and therefore cost more than an average movie. Very few people would take a chance like that. So naturally my curiosity is piqued.

So what makes The Hive, a little low budget movie about a virus that turns people into mindless black tar spewing monsters infecting a summer camp, eligible for inclusion for the Fathom events? I think it being produced by Nerdist might have something to do with it. They haven't produced a movie before or haven't produced a movie since. It is an interesting idea for a horror movie. A virus that forces people in the grisly way possible to be connected all at once. They can see what the others see, they can feel what they feel and you find out exactly how they use that and you can recall memories from the others infected. Visually this movie is like a Jackson Pollock painting riddled with caffeine pills on an empty stomach. It uses black light to a good effect. It uses the black blood and the gnarly veins to good effect. The color scheme to the movie makes it stand out among other low budget horror movies. It looks visually stunning. It doesn't look cheap. That's the big difference between something like this and Scream Park. Scream Park was not able to utlitize what it had to make things more cinematic. The Hive is able to do that.

The effects as mentioned are terrific. It's gruesome but unappealing. The color scheme works well with making things stand out and capture your attention. I was on board with the hive mind lunacy. The thing I felt lacked and brought this movie down some was the relationship between the protagonist and his best friend and love interest. I'm sure they have names but I can't remember them. The hero is a womanizing douchebag bedding down as many of the girls in camp as he possibly can. He tries these very same tricks with Jessie(I think that is her name but honestly I have no clue). She shuts him down because she knows all about the way he operates. He tries to profess his love. She is having none of this. We now have our character arc. Of course his best friend has feelings for a girl who his friend beds. He takes this personally. We have this soap opera bit going on amongst the disease and grue. It doesn't work. The music is telling me that it should work but it simply doesn't.

This is not a bad film. It is enjoyable and I dug what it was trying to do. It is not scary. It tries to be with its jump scares. It is visually insane and it makes up for its low budget with its camera work and great make up work. I give this movie a B.

My quick rating - 6,6/10. I was completely surprised by this movie (especially after reading a review or two). This was a very well crafted film, almost to the point that I think the creators may have overshot their original idea in the process. At one point it was almost like a "Holy smokes, we could do this now...." moment and the story shifted. I can't say for sure that happened since I have nothing to do with the flick, but check it out yourself. The acting was done well, for this type of film since 3/4 of the time, they had to be possessed and spit out tar lol. The makeup was done well since they all were coated in fluids almost throughout the film. I guess letting you know that a young adult wakes with complete amnesia locked in a room and must figure out what happens and why via notes left by himself? and also flashbacks he has. This involves paying attention to the movie or you will get lost since this is filmed in a music video style (or normal terms, no camera shot lasts more then 10 seconds). I think somewhere hidden in here was a deeper message that should be sorted out for each viewer. Overall, I see a very unheard of flick that flies in under the radar and should be given some serious attention. David Yarovsky has created a very deep film and I look forward to more of his work.

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 admit upfront, this film left a really horrible taste in my mouth.

So much so that it even soured my feelings towards Nerdist and Chris Hardwick.

I know his M.O. is to be very positive about everything, and upbeat. But this movie just wasn't good.

If you are giving it a HUGE pass because it is low-budget, maybe you could forgive it some of its mistakes.

I was ready to walk out after 10 minutes because of a sound design element that was quite literally painful. From Bravest Warriors: "It's like making Oatmeal cry..." Catbug:"Why would you do that?" Why would you hurt your audience? That is lazy filmmaking.

All of the characters were unlikeable bullies. I rooted for no one and wanted them all to die.

The visual design was for stylistic purposes and actually violated filmic grammar in ways I just could not forgive.

Blacklight? Why? Totally non-diegetic, which is fine, but could not forgive it especially compared to other issues.

Oh, let me do First Person POV shots as Over-The-Shoulder shots, SOMETIMES. Why? I'm confused.

Let me have blinking lights/strobe effect FOR NO REASON, other than to make the shot painful to look at. Thanks.

The love story didn't really work for me either. There was ONE SCENE where it was almost poignant (the one with the strobe lights), but I didn't even want to watch it because the cinematography was so annoying.

Nor did I find the gore effects particularly interesting either.

I didn't like the movie. I didn't enjoy watching it. I didn't like the score (which was also a major selling point of the film).

It was all over the place. And there there was weird unnecessarily sexualized slut-shaming/emasculation dialogue that I also did not like at all.

The whole big social networking allegory was also not very strong or sold well in the movie itself. You get that more from reading critique on it than what you can actually see in the film text itself.

Maybe I am too old.

I love genre movies. I love the surprise little indies.

But I was sitting in my seat fuming, just waiting for it to end. I felt lied to by the Nerdist stamp of approval.

To me it is totally skippable. Unless you are OK with starting a movie that it is OK to shut off before you finish.

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