The Hive (2015)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film, as there's been a spate of 'Virus' horror/thrillers of late. To be fair, it was a lot more engaging than I anticipated with 'Memento' styled flashbacks and some great acting. The characters start out being typical teenage horror fodder but develop into interesting and well rounded people that as a viewer, it's difficult not to like and feel sympathy for. The action does jump around a lot and at times you're not sure where in the time-line the characters are currently, but this is a minor annoyance. Despite being a bit lost during the first 10-15 minutes, as the plot unfolds everything comes together and tells a fascinating tale, warning of the foolishness and greed of humanity. Honestly, this movie is the best and most engaging I've seen in a while and doesn't just rely on special effects and/or make-up, but actually tells an interesting and gripping story.

If looked deeper, and thought more than what was displayed on the screen, the story will appeal to it's true execution of what is a deeply sympathetic horror film, manipulating genre elements into something even more, something even more meaningful than displayed. "The Hive" is a movie, if taken seriously, that'll move, and affect the audience in a massive way. The movie starts out with an extremely unique plot, of which involves heavily on flashbacks, memory, as well as the past of which is all explained in a well manor in the film. We follow the story of four friends of which were once counseling a children's camp, only to soon fall into impending doom as a horrid virus plagues humanity, hitting a wave of horror to these characters. It may sound typical, or clichéd in this case. But the film, above, and beyond succeeded in making a semi-predictable plot into something even greater than it was set out to be. The story manages to journey audiences into an awaiting line of unique, gripping twists, and storyline. The film also manages to keep all these ideas wrapped around a thrilling chain of events of which revolve around these characters. The story unravels, uncovering more, and more events of which tells us, the audience of what our given characters are really capable of, what they can manipulate, how they wrap their head around events, etc. The characters we are given are actually quite interesting. At first, what seems to be another typical bunch of cliché characters, turns into something extremely pleasant, unique, and refreshing. We are given characters with common sense, characters that manage to win over the audiences' care; The feeling of actually caring for what happens to the characters. Finally, on the note, the film manages to give the characters well, clever personality twists, turning them into characters that could've been clichéd, into something much, much more pleasant. Finally. The design, and scares of these creatures, of which were afflicted with said virus aren't your typical, overly clichéd zombies. Instead we get more pleasant surprises with said afflicted creatures possessing interesting behavior, and shocking appearance, delivering an interest to their presence, while giving the audience a sense of fright at the sight, effective, at the same time amazingly captivating.In conclusion, this movie was a huge eye-opener. It manages to feed the audience an entertaining, thrilling, sympathetic, and meaningful horror story of which succeeds in it's effectiveness. It manages to keep a well story, of which takes turns, and unfolds into an even bigger, more interesting story than what we thought we were actually in for, offering more, and more entertaining surprises. At the same time, it manages to keep a scary-like appearance with it's visual infection - themed effects, at the same time giving a well story that captivates. Overall, this movie, IF given a chance, with thought regarding what was given, you will enjoy this movie for what it stood out to be - a unique experience that'll entertain for sure.

I'm actually surprised that MTV had nothing to do with this film because it had MTV written all over it. Cast of beautiful people, poor dialogue, and a cheesy love story. Right from the get go this felt like the first episode to a really bad MTV series (not that any of them are good). I stuck with it because I hate to judge a movie without seeing it to the end, but I am kind of regretting that now.So the film is centered on a picture perfect teenage boy who wakes up in a blood soaked cabin and tries to recall what exactly happened. The story is told through poorly done flashbacks that try to move as fast as possible. That's one of my big problems with this, the pace of the film is actually too fast. They try to rush everything along in order to hold the audience's attention but really all it did for me is make me lose interest in what was going on. I didn't establish any kind of connection with the characters or the story because the fast pacing just made everything feel really cheesy and cheap.Maybe I'm not the perfect person to be reviewing this movie, I am not a teenager and I feel like the is that main demographic that this film was going after. The cheesy romance and the lame jokes just fell flat on me but those are things that the MTV audience will probably enjoy. For me though I thought this was a pretty terrible film, after an hour of it I was really eager for it to just end. Other than some decent gore I really don't have many good things to say, wouldn't recommend it unless you are a fan of MTV type stuff.3/10

I was lucky enough to see this film during its one-night Fathom event and couldn't be happier that I got a chance to experience it on the big screen. This is the type of film that benefits from having large, booming speakers to enhance its awesome visuals. The Hive is the reason people love low-budget horror, proving again and again that talent is more important than a large budget. I will not review any plot details as I think this is the type of film that benefits from the viewer going in blind. If you are looking for a film that both honors the horror/zombie genre but isn't afraid to throw out some new ideas, this is pure, adrenaline-pumping ecstasy. Bloody, gruesome, and often slightly silly, this little film will give genre fans happy little nightmares.Awesome! Check it out!