VOD Review: The Hive (2015)

A young, self-proclaimed douchebag wakes up in a dark room, alone and having been infected by something, which has left him pretty bad shape. He doesn't remember what happened, or how he got there, but by the looks of him and his surroundings, he probably doesn't want to know the answers to those questions anyway.

There are clues all over the walls which he comes to understand are meant to help him remember something, and as his memories slowly begin to return, we're shown flashbacks of his past few days, and how he and his friends came to be in the mess that they're in.

Sticky, black, viral mayhem ensues.

SHE WAS LEGIT CREEPY.

The Hive is a pretty great looking movie, with its gross-out "infected" FX being some of the most original and unique that we've seen. This wasn't a very gory movie (at least not in a traditional way), and there wasn't a lot of violence going on throughout, but the black goo still made for plenty of nastiness that  should keep gorehounds happy, in a roundabout sort of way. You can tell that the director came from a music Video Background, because the whole thing is very slick, and even nuanced, in places.

We also really liked Katheryn Prescott as Katie. We've been fans of hers since she was on the British TV Show, Skins, and it's good to see her in something new again, as she's a great little actress who brings something special to whatever she stars in. Gabrielle Walsh was also pretty good as Jess, and was sufficiently creepy once she was in full "hive" mode.

Overall though, The Hive is a movie that is big on ideas, but very small on coherent quality.

SHE'S STILL DREAMING OF NAOMI...

It's like the director of had a movie marathon that included Memento, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Puppet Masters, the Evil Dead Remake, Cabin Fever, and a season or two of some shitty teen drama on MTV (pick whichever one you like, they're all the same), and then decided that it would be cool to combine them all into one movie that involved gallons upon gallons of black goo, a bunch of flashbacks, and a shit ton of exposition to explain it all to the audience.

Instead of being an effective Horror movie that has a love story at its heart, it ends up being a jumbled, unfocused, obnoxious mess that jumps back and forth so much, that at one point we didn't even care what was happening anymore... which sucked for us, because most of the movie involves the characters of Adam standing around and explaining to us what is going on. Out loud. We also get to see plenty of Adam's memories (both his own, and the ones belonging to other people that he can access through the hive mind), all of which serve to further explain to us what is going on.

THE FX IN THIS MOVIE WERE PRETTY FANTASTIC THOUGH.

Maybe in the hands of experienced writers who could craft a straight-forward, smart, engaging script, this movie's plot could have lived up to its potential. Then again, that would require a director who could bring those same qualities to the directing chair, which this movie didn't have either. David Yarovesky is aces when it comes to visual style, and thinking outside of the box, but he's got to work on making the stories that he wants to tell more coherent. I mean, he doesn't have to, but he really, really should.

THIS WAS PRETTY MUCH US WATCHING THE HIVE.

As excited as we were to see The Hive, we're even more disappointed that it turned out the way that it did. We believe that this movie will find an audience with the younger crowd, but unless you like movies that feel like they could be a pilot episode for a new teen drama on MTV, then The Hive may not resonate with you in the same way. It certainly didn't with us.

C-

The Hive is available now on VOD.

Kathryn Prescott stole the show in this one.