Stumbling upon the 2023 movie "The Hive" by random chance here in 2024, I must admit that I opted to sit down and watch it without ever having heard about it. I liked the movie's cover, as it seemed interesting. And of course with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, then I had to satisfy my craving for horror and watch it.
Writer and director Jared Allmond put together a script that might be entertaining if you are a newcomer to the thriller and horror genre. But I have been watching horror movies for about 40 years, so this was a mere walk in the park. And while it was a watchable enough movie, I found the narrative to be somewhat stale and slow paced.
Something that did work well in favor of the movie and the narrative, was the fact that the audience is kept in the dark by writer and director Jared Allmond. Now, that might be sort of a personal preference whether you like being totally in the dark or not.
The movie has a relatively small cast ensemble, but they managed to carry the movie well enough, as they put on good performances. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in "The Hive" and that is something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie.
"The Hive" proved to be a bit too uneventful and bland for my liking, and it was a bit of a struggle to sit through 86 minutes of a script that held no surprises or roller coaster ups and downs. Writer and director Jared Allmond set the course for a straight path and didn't as much as swerve or turn, and had made sure that there were no bumps along the path. And that made for a rather monotonous viewing experience.
And what was supposed to be a big reveal towards the end of the movie just had me outright laughing, because it was such a bizarre turn of events, and it just felt so incredibly ridiculous. Which leads us to the ending, which was, let's just say, anti-climatic to say the least.
My rating of "The Hive" lands on a very, very generous three out of ten stars. Ultimately, the movie's cover was actually the best thing about the ordeal.
