The Hatred (2017)
Written By: FR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Michael G. Kehoe
Producer: Big Rock Films, Westridge Films
Screenwriter: Michael G. Kehoe, Michael G. Kehoe
Date Released: August 17, 2017
Cast:
Sarah Davenport as Regan
Andrew Divoff as Samuel Sears
Darby Walker as Alice
Nina Siemaszko as Miriam
Shae Smolik as Irene
Gabrielle Bourne as Layan
Bayley Corman as Samantha
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
The film initially takes the audience back to 1968, in which former Nazi soldier Samuel Sears has assimilated into American society as a reclusive farmer. He receives an amulet in the mail from one of his Nazi associates, and the amulet prompts a series of violent events at the farmhouse. In the present day, a group of young women on a weekend retreat at the old farmhouse and encounter the amulet’s evil influence along with the ghosts of Sears’ family.
Gore Factor
There is not a lot of gore in this movie. However there is one scene where Samuel is killed in the beginning after he is sprayed in the mask killing him. The movie has brief but moving scenes of repression, despair and guilt.
The Grave Review
The Hatred (2017) failed to deliver for most of its running time beyond some ‘climactic’ slamming of doors and fascist messages delivering via a bath plughole. The upside to The Hatred’s gear getting stuck in a single position down the home stretch is at least a manageable speed is maintained. The downside is that the straightforward speed races right past every opportunity for originality that might add an energetic edge.
The film’s performances are mixed. Darby Walker is great as Sears’ daughter, Alice, who meets an unpleasant end early in the film. Andrew Divoff is phenomenal as the ex-Nazi Samuel Sears. He’s as menacing as you would expect, based on Andrew’s other bad-guy roles, but he also shows some sensitivity and emotional vulnerability in some of the scenes, adding complexity to his overbearing, authoritarian patriarch character. The four other women and the girl were mediocre and did little to uplift the quality of the movie.
The dialogues are predictable and inane. There are no surprises there. The plot seems to work out in the beginning, but it has fizzled out at the end. It seems like that they ran out of ideas on how the main character can get a good escape but only by the doggy door.
Don’t go into this movie expecting a slasher film, or even blood and gore. Though there is a flashback sequence that makes me wonder if Sears disemboweled and taxidermized Alice. Instead, it’s a character-centric ghost story with an emphasis on atmosphere and spookiness.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews give The Hatred (2017) two graves out of five graves.
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