Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Hatred

The Hatred, 2017/ 1 hr 30 min

In 1938 on the Sears Farm, the overbearing patriarch, Samuel (Andrew Divoff) of the family receives a package. Inside is evidence of who this man really is and a request for a favor plus a relic. He secretes it in a basement wall.

Afterward, he forbids his daughter, Alice (Darby Anne Walker) to step foot outside the house. He then extends the same fate to his wife after she tries to defend their daughter. He insists he’s protecting them but when he loses control when his daughter rebels, he kills her and in the wall, the relic’s energy gets stronger.

Samuel hides her death and her remains from his wife. And in her grief, she takes care of her husband, then packs a suitcase and walks away. Meanwhile, in the basement, the relic is active.

• Present Day

Regan (Sarah Davenport) and her three friends Layan {Gabrielle Bourne}, Betaine {Alisha Wainwright} and Samantha {Bayley Corman}) vacation at their professor’s country home, the old Sears House and keeping an eye on Irene (Shae Smolik), Walter’s daughter, who has assigned them all rooms.

All that’s left is one room with a mysterious, aged, heavy door, it’s Alice’s room. Exactly as she left it. Until Samantha goes in and rifles through her belongings. Later, Irene sees Samantha snooping in the barn and finds herself being yanked into the trough that Alice was killed in.

Later, that evening they play hide and seek in the house and while hiding, Layan and Samantha go through the previous owner’s, Samuel’s, personal files and on the wall is an imprint of the relic. The house is also very active with supernatural activity and Irene is calling to her ‘invisible’ friend.

After Irene goes to bed, everyone else (except Betaine) starts researching the prior owners of this house and the more they discover, the more active and aggressive the house becomes.

The relic isn’t the only thing still in this house and the energy doesn’t just spook, the non corporeal becomes very corporeal and it kills. None of them may make it out of the house alive, including the current owners.

This supernatural horror is directed by Michael G. Kehoe and it is full of jump scares, there’s no blood or gore. The pacing, story and concept is pretty good. The CG is good and really eerie and many of the scares are upgraded old favorites. I really enjoyed this!