I hope to keep moving with my convention reviews. Sometimes I take so long getting them done that I'm no longer sure what to say about the films. I managed to get a review done on my other blog for the movie Black Wake, which was the second film that I watched over the weekend. Check it out if you would like to. This leads me to The Hatred (2018). I had a feeling after I watched it that this would be my favorite film and I wasn't wrong. There were still some good films to watch, but this one was my favorite of those I did get to watch.
Set in the late 1800's, a group of soldiers is moving across the land in the dead of winter. Low on food, they aren't sure what to do next. They come up with a plan to take the food from a house that has a mother and her younger daughters in it then kill them. One of the soldiers (John Law) goes against this idea and is hanged for going against the group. One of the daughters (Zelda Adams) isn't home at the time and returns to find her family dead. Asking for revenge, something answers her call and brings the hanged soldier back from the dead to help her track and kill the rest of the soldiers.
The Hatred was written and directed by John Law. In fact, he did a lot of different things for his film, including editor and composer. For this being his first film, I was surprised to see his name all over it. What a film it is though. I believe that the story takes place in 1876, though I could be off on the year. The characters don't talk much and the story is narrated by Zelda Adams. We never learn any of the character's names and when I looked up the film on IMDb, the characters are named after sins. Zelda's character is Hatred. John's is Vengence. Other character names are Sloth, Greed, Lust, and so on. As the story goes on, we figure out that Zelda isn't telling us about what happened after all. She is on trial, sort of, by a few other soldiers who have discovered in part what happened. With the threat of being hanged, she is explaining her side of things. While delivered in a flat tone, her words are almost poetic at times. As they track down the soldiers who killed her family, she manages to separate them one by one in order to get her revenge. What impressed me so much about The Hatred wasn't the story itself, though I did enjoy it. With this film, it was more the music/sound and how it was used. I don't talk about the music in a film all that much unless it stands out and it does so a lot here. I have read where some don't think that the music fits, but I disagree with that. It doesn't fit in the way that it is right for the time period, but it does fit in the way that it makes the scenes feel more creepy. For me, that is more important than finding music to fit the time period. Add to this some weird images to go along with it all, and it really kept me into the film.
I complained in my last review that we see the characters walking around way too much. While we get plenty of the same here, it felt like it was broken up better. Either someone ends up being killed, or we just get a weird dream-like image with creepy music. The story is simple and there are some long periods where you won't hear any talking. While this may bug some of you, it worked for me very well. The way the films ends was also pretty amazing to me as well. The film is just an hour long, which shows that Law doesn't try to overstay his story by dragging it out too much. It was perfect to me in many ways, but it didn't scare me. Not that I need it to in order to enjoy the film, but I can't give it my highest rating even though I want to, a lot.
The effects are pretty good for The Hatred. There isn't a lot, but we do see people get shot and stabbed at times. Some of it happens off screen, but not much. I don't recall anything really gory, as it has been a few days since I watched it now and I didn't have anything to take notes on. Even so, I didn't feel this needed to be a gory film just because it was so creepy. The acting was pretty good as well. I thought that Law does a good job with his role. The real star is Zelda Adams though. While she mostly talks in a flat tone, I think that it was supposed to be that way in order to show that she no longer really cares since she lost her family. It is just about getting revenge now.
I also liked how Zelda had been dressed up once she is on track to take revenge. You can see it on the movie poster and it wasn't a way that I was expecting at all. It was a nice touch. I don't know why it worked so well for me, but it did. I feel like I'm not doing this movie justice with my review of it. It was just so amazing to me while I watched it and I'm really looking forward to getting the chance to watch it again soon. I found out that you can rent or buy a digital copy on Amazon Prime. It is just three dollars to rent it, which is well worth the money to me. The Hatred isn't for everyone, and I get that. In fact, a one-star review on Amazon that I found funny was "Watched the first 5 minutes and proceeded to punch myself in the face." As if that is a useful comment. I highly recommend checking this one out. If it sounds like a film you aren't sure about, then I would suggest waiting to see if you might be able to catch it eventually without paying extra to rent it.
4 out of 5 Can't say I have hated anyone this much
Set in the late 1800's, a group of soldiers is moving across the land in the dead of winter. Low on food, they aren't sure what to do next. They come up with a plan to take the food from a house that has a mother and her younger daughters in it then kill them. One of the soldiers (John Law) goes against this idea and is hanged for going against the group. One of the daughters (Zelda Adams) isn't home at the time and returns to find her family dead. Asking for revenge, something answers her call and brings the hanged soldier back from the dead to help her track and kill the rest of the soldiers.
The Hatred was written and directed by John Law. In fact, he did a lot of different things for his film, including editor and composer. For this being his first film, I was surprised to see his name all over it. What a film it is though. I believe that the story takes place in 1876, though I could be off on the year. The characters don't talk much and the story is narrated by Zelda Adams. We never learn any of the character's names and when I looked up the film on IMDb, the characters are named after sins. Zelda's character is Hatred. John's is Vengence. Other character names are Sloth, Greed, Lust, and so on. As the story goes on, we figure out that Zelda isn't telling us about what happened after all. She is on trial, sort of, by a few other soldiers who have discovered in part what happened. With the threat of being hanged, she is explaining her side of things. While delivered in a flat tone, her words are almost poetic at times. As they track down the soldiers who killed her family, she manages to separate them one by one in order to get her revenge. What impressed me so much about The Hatred wasn't the story itself, though I did enjoy it. With this film, it was more the music/sound and how it was used. I don't talk about the music in a film all that much unless it stands out and it does so a lot here. I have read where some don't think that the music fits, but I disagree with that. It doesn't fit in the way that it is right for the time period, but it does fit in the way that it makes the scenes feel more creepy. For me, that is more important than finding music to fit the time period. Add to this some weird images to go along with it all, and it really kept me into the film.
I complained in my last review that we see the characters walking around way too much. While we get plenty of the same here, it felt like it was broken up better. Either someone ends up being killed, or we just get a weird dream-like image with creepy music. The story is simple and there are some long periods where you won't hear any talking. While this may bug some of you, it worked for me very well. The way the films ends was also pretty amazing to me as well. The film is just an hour long, which shows that Law doesn't try to overstay his story by dragging it out too much. It was perfect to me in many ways, but it didn't scare me. Not that I need it to in order to enjoy the film, but I can't give it my highest rating even though I want to, a lot.
The effects are pretty good for The Hatred. There isn't a lot, but we do see people get shot and stabbed at times. Some of it happens off screen, but not much. I don't recall anything really gory, as it has been a few days since I watched it now and I didn't have anything to take notes on. Even so, I didn't feel this needed to be a gory film just because it was so creepy. The acting was pretty good as well. I thought that Law does a good job with his role. The real star is Zelda Adams though. While she mostly talks in a flat tone, I think that it was supposed to be that way in order to show that she no longer really cares since she lost her family. It is just about getting revenge now.
I also liked how Zelda had been dressed up once she is on track to take revenge. You can see it on the movie poster and it wasn't a way that I was expecting at all. It was a nice touch. I don't know why it worked so well for me, but it did. I feel like I'm not doing this movie justice with my review of it. It was just so amazing to me while I watched it and I'm really looking forward to getting the chance to watch it again soon. I found out that you can rent or buy a digital copy on Amazon Prime. It is just three dollars to rent it, which is well worth the money to me. The Hatred isn't for everyone, and I get that. In fact, a one-star review on Amazon that I found funny was "Watched the first 5 minutes and proceeded to punch myself in the face." As if that is a useful comment. I highly recommend checking this one out. If it sounds like a film you aren't sure about, then I would suggest waiting to see if you might be able to catch it eventually without paying extra to rent it.
4 out of 5 Can't say I have hated anyone this much
