The Hive is not my usual movie. I’m
not the biggest horror genre fan, but I do generally enjoy sci-fi horror. The
Hive played for one night only in theaters and was distributed by Nerdist. I enjoy
Chris Hardwick and didn’t think he would get behind something horrible. The
other reason I dragged myself to the theater is I live in the house where the
co-writer Will
Honely grew up. My wife worked with his father and we bought the house. My
wife keeps in contact and I wanted to see the movie he wrote. The movie won’t
win any Oscars, but I had a good time and its worth watching if you enjoy
science fiction or horror movies.
The movie starts out with Adam, Gabriel Basso, waking
up in a ransacked room. He is disoriented and has amnesia. He has growths and a
strange tar like substance all over his body. He soon begins having flashbacks
and realizing the events that lead him to being stuck in a room. The start was
a bit clunky. I didn’t quite by into Basso confusion and hysteria. I know he
can pull this off though, he did a great job of it playing the whiney
hysterical kid in Super 8. Once we get into the flashbacks of him remembering
who he is the story picks up.
The hive at its core is a love
story between Adam and Katie, Kathryn Prescott.
Through Adams flashbacks we learn he is stuck at a summer camp as a counselor.
It seems he has had his way with most of the female counselors. Once Adam
starts to interact with Katie at the infirmary the story gains traction. The
chemistry between Basso and Prescott is fantastic and you buy into their liking
for one another. I didn’t necessarily buy into the setting or scenario, but the
actual interaction felt like typical teenagers getting to know each other. As
the story progresses it is this building romance that our story is hinged on.
Adam wants to find out what happened to Katie and why he is stuck in a room
alone.
The Hive are former/current
humans who have been infected by a strange tar like substance. Hive members can
infect by throwing up the tar on others. It was extremely gross, gory, and
entertainingJ.
Once infected the hive takes over the subjects body. They have one consciousness
and can see what the infected sees, and control them. The loss of identity is a terrifying, and some
of the best horror films have played on this concept. Star Trek’s The Borg are
great example of this science fiction horror trope. The hive in the movie share
a similar function of the Borg. They want to turn every human into one of them,
and resistance to their efforts seems futile and infective. The film does a
good job of portraying this concept.
The special effects for the movie
are spectacular. The infected hive humans look great. The growths and tar are
stunning and visceral. You wouldn’t want the stuff to get on you and it is a
bit freaky. The voice modifications of the infected are a strong piece adding
to the overall unnaturalness of the hive. It is very gender neutral, but goes
to deep and high at different points. Hearing this from a female does invoke
some scary moments. Overall I wasn’t terrified of the hive. One reason I
usually avoid some horror films is the fact I still get nightmares as an adult.
After seeing the Dawn of the Dead remake years ago I had zombie nightmares for
weeks after. The Hive didn’t affect me on a deep level. I loved the style of
the shooting and visuals the filmed provided. I just wasn’t frightened.
There are a few other drawbacks.
Some of the sets suffered because of the low budget nature and I didn’t buy
into Adams friend, Clark’s, story arc in the movie. The actor, Jacob Zachar,
wasn’t horrible in the role. I just didn’t buy into the character. The low
budget effected some of the lab areas shown. It took me out of the movie a bit,
but it’s understandable when having to cut corners to get something made. It
seemed the film spared no expense on the effects of the infected people, and I’m
all for this. They looked spectacular, and I can take other areas suffering a
bit for these effects. I also didn’t care for a few of the over the shoulder
shots. It was supposed to give us a first person point of view, but it took me
out of the movie. There was one shot of a brain operation which was
spectacular. It was completely in first person point of view and not over the
shoulder. I think if this was used for some of the other over the shoulder
shots it would have added to the film overall.
I liked The Hive and glad I went
and saw it. It’s not one I will add to
my collection, but it’s worth seeing. Still might end up buying it just to
support the film and people who made it. Find it on video on demand now.
Hopefully it gets a wider release in theaters, or Netflix and Amazon Prime
picks it up so a wider audience can see the film. The Nerdist name alone should
get some people to watch the film. If
you went and saw the movie let me know what you thought.
My Rating: Worth Watching
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