The Hatred is a 2017 horror film in which four young women travel to their college professor’s country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past. Also known as Haunted Getaway
Written and directed by Michael G. Kehoe (based on his 2015 short, Hush) and produced by Malek Akkad (Halloween franchise).
The movie stars Sarah Davenport, Andrew Divoff, Darby Walker, Nina Siemaszko, Shae Smolik, Gabrielle Bourne, Bayley Corman, Alisha Wainwright, David Naughton, Amanda Wyss, Tim DeZarn, Musetta Vander and Ronnie Gene Blevins.
Plot:
Five young women travel to their college professor’s new country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past…
Our review:
The Hatred begins well. Andrew Divoff (far removed from his cheesy Wishmaster roles) is chillingly arrogant as Samuel, a Nazi benefactor. Some brief yet moving scenes of repression, despair and guilt suggest this will be a decent study of angst in general.
Alas, The Hatred soon deposits us back in the reality of horror movie expediency as five attractive young female students show up at the house of evil. And, yes, they are all attractive, so bang goes any attempt at a more realistic scenario and this might as well be a cheesy Sorority House Massacre, except they don’t wear skimpy lingerie)
Beyond the usual bimbo banter, these young ladies have a surprisingly serious interest in the history of the Third Reich. They look up the old amulet found at the start of the film and discover it was originally linked to the “Templar Knights” (amidst a massive amount of information about horrific history that you can casually find on Google, apparently). Meanwhile, the longest “thunder and lightning” storm ever rages on. And on.
Based on its opening backstory scenes, The Hatred had definite promise. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver on this for most of its running time beyond some ‘climactic’ slamming of doors and fascist messages delivering via a bath plughole (no, really). At the film’s unexciting conclusion, Regan (yes, Regan) helps innocent little girl Irene escape via a “doggy door”. It’s that easy to escape from evil, apparently.
Eventually, The Hatred simply peters out and we are left to ponder why Halloween producer Malek Akkad decided to become involved in this inauspicious expansion of Hush, director Michael G. Kehoe’s generally well-regarded horror short.
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
Other reviews:
“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.” Culture Crypt
“Things are pretty resolutely predictable once the actual scare-a-thon gets its rather belated start, and there are some admittedly nice jump scares that accrue in a couple of moments, but virtually everything about this film is chaotically presented and therefore too almost random-seeming to ever generate sustained anxiety.” Blu-ray.com
“Don’t go into this movie expecting a T&A slasher film, or even blood and gore. (Though there is a flashback sequence that makes me wonder if Sears disemboweled and taxidermied Alice.) Instead, it’s a character-centric ghost story with an emphasis on atmosphere and spookiness.” My Horrific Life
” …I much more would have preferred if the entire movie was a period piece, rather than just its first 15 minutes or so. As soon as the movie starts to take place in modern times I started to lose interest in it as well. It became a far too formulaic movie, with uninteresting characters and all of the usual settings and events.” Boba_Fett1138
Free on YouTube:
Blu-ray:
The Hatred was released on Blu-ray + Digital HD and DVD by Lionsgate on September 12, 2017.
Buy Blu-ray + Digital HD: Amazon.com
Film facts:
The film’s working titles were Alice and Alice: The Hatred.
Cast and characters:
Sarah Davenport … Regan
Andrew Divoff … Samuel Sears
Darby Walker … Alice
Nina Siemaszko … Miriam
Shae Smolik … Irene
Gabrielle Bourne … Layan
Bayley Corman … Samantha
Alisha Wainwright … Betaine
David Naughton … Walter
Amanda Wyss … Beth Crossan
Tim DeZarn … Sheriff
Musetta Vander … Edna
Ronnie Gene Blevins … Virgil
Nancy Linehan Charles … Grandmother
Darri Ingolfsson … Doctor
Griffin Kehoe … Young boy
