Review of The Hateful Eight (2015) by Andres L — 02 Apr 2016

With "The Hateful Eight" (or H8ful Eight? Or is it Hateful 8...?) Tarantino went back to his "Reservoir Dogs" roots and created a throwback movie to the Golden Age of Cinema with some influences from John Carpenters "The Thing" and a "Who-dunnit" storyline that could've been written by Agatha Christie. And probably only a talented director and huge movie buff like Tarantino could pull off a movie like this. Because if you make a movie that mainly takes place in one location (like "12 Angry Men" or "Rope") you need to have great characters and great dialogue. And if we know one thing about Quentin Tarantino, then it's that he's a master in creating both. He knows how to bring out the best performances out of his frequent collaborators like Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Michael Madsen or Tim Roth, but also from Kurt Russel and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who are both phenomenal in the movie. The dialogue, the delivery and the performances are top notch,.

The tension between those characters is almost its own character, brought to life not only by the performances of the actos, but by Ennio Morricones haunting score. Most of which were unused tracks from the influential "The Thing". And just like in John Carpenters classic, the paranoia dominates the characters minds like nothing else. Who is telling the truth? Who is lying? Who is trying to help Kurt Russels prisoner to escape? Those are a few questions that dominate the first half of the movie, until it throws out all of the subtle tension for some tarantino-like shoot-outs and gore. All of which is masterfully crafted, but I just wished that the "Who-dunnit" plotline could've gone a bit longer and more elaborate, until shit hits the fan.

Sure, in every Tarantino movie there are action sequences filled with blood and gore, but in this case, I wouldn't have minded if those parts would've taken a backseat and let the overall story and tension be the front runner.