I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I didn't know what to exactly expect from The Hive, and after having watched it, my ambivalence remains, because despite including an interesting premise and an attractive visual style, the screenplay tends to deflate as we start to guess where the "big mystery" is heading, not to mention that some poor performances ruin various scenes which should have been shocking but end up being just irritating due to the null talent from the actors. Nevertheless, I appreciate the fact that director David Yarovesky decided to face such an unusual project in his first film. First, the pros: the mystery contained in The Hive is interesting, and it is well built in order to keep us in suspense about its origin and possible evolution. Co-screenwriters Yarovesky and Will Honley play with our expectations, offering us vague clues of an uncertain meaning... Are we in the middle of a zombie invasion, a multiple satanic possession or a simple epidemic of apocalyptic proportions? Fortunately, the answer is more complicated (even though it includes a bit of all that), and it's interesting to build the puzzle at the same time as the main character. At least, that's what I felt during the first half of The Hive. But eventually, new clues to solve the mystery are revealed, and that's when it feels a bit tiring to spin around the same events while the main character writes notes on the walls and experiments repetitive flashbacks to reach the "big revelation" we had been waiting from half an hour before. However, the main problem is the bad performances from Gabriel Basso as the main character and Jacob Zachar as his best friend. Both feel very forced in their roles, and as a consequence, it's difficult for the audience to root for their characters. Fortunately, the supporting actors make a decent work in their roles, including Kathryn Prescott, Gabrielle Walsh, Elya Baskin and Sean Gunn. In conclusion, The Hive managed to keep me interested, and I can give it a moderate recommendation as a curious fusion of horror and science fiction. Its second half decays a bit, but it still brings us new information to complement the mystery I felt kinda predictable. With better actors than Basso and Zachar and a more refined screenplay, The Hive might have been a hidden gem; but in its current state, it fell short of its big potential, and even though I found it interesting, it didn't leave me completely satisfied.

I will admit upfront, this film left a really horrible taste in my mouth.So much so that it even soured my feelings towards Nerdist and Chris Hardwick.I know his M.O. is to be very positive about everything, and upbeat. But this movie just wasn't good.If you are giving it a HUGE pass because it is low-budget, maybe you could forgive it some of its mistakes.I was ready to walk out after 10 minutes because of a sound design element that was quite literally painful. From Bravest Warriors: "It's like making Oatmeal cry..." Catbug:"Why would you do that?" Why would you hurt your audience? That is lazy filmmaking.All of the characters were unlikeable bullies. I rooted for no one and wanted them all to die.The visual design was for stylistic purposes and actually violated filmic grammar in ways I just could not forgive.Blacklight? Why? Totally non-diegetic, which is fine, but could not forgive it especially compared to other issues.Oh, let me do First Person POV shots as Over-The-Shoulder shots, SOMETIMES. Why? I'm confused.Let me have blinking lights/strobe effect FOR NO REASON, other than to make the shot painful to look at. Thanks.The love story didn't really work for me either. There was ONE SCENE where it was almost poignant (the one with the strobe lights), but I didn't even want to watch it because the cinematography was so annoying.Nor did I find the gore effects particularly interesting either.I didn't like the movie. I didn't enjoy watching it. I didn't like the score (which was also a major selling point of the film).It was all over the place. And there there was weird unnecessarily sexualized slut-shaming/emasculation dialogue that I also did not like at all. The whole big social networking allegory was also not very strong or sold well in the movie itself. You get that more from reading critique on it than what you can actually see in the film text itself.Maybe I am too old.I love genre movies. I love the surprise little indies.But I was sitting in my seat fuming, just waiting for it to end. I felt lied to by the Nerdist stamp of approval.To me it is totally skippable. Unless you are OK with starting a movie that it is OK to shut off before you finish.

Checked this movie out after a buddy told me about it and I'm glad I did. Went in thinking it was going to be a horror movie and got a lot more than that. For an indie movie the acting was actually pretty good, there were only a couple times were the acting took me out of it but all in all they did good. The pacing was perfect and kept me engaged and the plot was great. I love sitting through a movie trying to peace things together up until the final moment. The love story that develops throughout the movie was great, at the beginning you could really feel some chemistry between the two. However, at about halfway through the movie it feels like it skipped a lot of character development between the two which I felt was a little weird. I wish we could have seen more interaction between the two in the middle of the movie. All in all, this is a great movie that probably not many will see that more people should see.

The Hive is a solid blend of horror norms wrapped around a central theme of loss of identity. Set in a slasher film's summer camp cliché, what the producers of The Hive want you to believe is that you're here to see a zombie film. In reality, this is an interesting take on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers trope, told with a Memento-style narrative of interwoven flashbacks as our protagonists (and "others") memories return. The events leading to the amnesia are an important plot point, and the flashbacks become multi- faceted as the story fleshes out.The Hive is advertised as shot in "Vine-Style" with no single shot lasting more than ten seconds. The conscious decision to edit the film this way seems inconsequential for the majority of the film, but when combined with the flashbacks, we do slip into short periods of incoherency. More distressing is early on, as Adam (Gabriel Basso) is being introduced. Alone and without memories, the director uses a series of rapid jump cuts to convey his leads anger and frustration, which is simply distracting to the viewer. The editing choices also mean we never linger on a particular image, which is a shame because certain moments have great framing and make perfect use of the high contrast.Due to the direction, Basso does not convey a strong lead in the weak first act of the film, but he is type-cast well. David Yarovesky recovers from these initial stumbles, showing his strongest instincts lie in the teen romance scenes. Adams chemistry with Katie (Kathryn Prescott) starts to turn things around, and as the film progresses he becomes a more believable character. Jacob Zachar is not given a well conceived character arc, but none the less has an excellent turn as Clark. Prescott remains a charming presence throughout, even in the more tense moments. The secondary cast all put in solid horror movie performances, with only Gabrielle Walsh treading hammy. The production values, while misguided and heavy handed at times, are strong. The film is heavily filtered, so natural lighting is never neutral and the the majority of the interior cabin shots make full use of exploiting blacklights to give a distinct look to the films present time frame. The general aesthetics will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent any time with the famed Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies video game. You might question the speed in which the main cabin deteriorates, as well as the extremes in which the children's cabin has been effected later in the movie. These set choices are seemingly to promote atmosphere but mostly miss.What does promote the atmosphere is the music, easily the strongest aspect of The Hive and yet still not without flaw. The rather well shot scene of Adam and Katie in the clinic is adversely affected by the soundtrack, but the moments of tension and horror are perfectly scored. The use of Steve Aoki's tracks are fitting and complimenting. After a summer season that included Unfriended, The Gallows and The Poltergeist remake, as well as sharing theater retail space with The Visit, The Hive is certainly an above-board film to the horror fetishist. It hangs hope on its high concept of loss of identity to stick with you after the credits roll, while limiting the jump scares and turning up the gross out factor with vomiting. The story is intriguing, and the flashbacks of the scientists involved in creating this situation particularly strong. It has weak direction and contrived narrative devices in play, but it is well worth the watch and certainly more deserving of wide release.