The Hatred (Blu-ray Review)
Unoriginality is the star of the show. “The Hatred” is a film with a hilariously insane premise but no idea where to go once the story is established. The prologue introduces us to Samuel Sears (Andrew Divoff), a former Nazi who escaped to the United States. With him is an amulet he stole from the French, which is apparently evil (of course) and feeds off fear and hate (of course). Through a series of events, he murders his daughter (of course) which results in his wife killing him (of course). Left in the house are evil spirits waiting for their next victim (OF COURSE!).
Film 
We cut to present day, where four college students (all female, of course, so we are never without gratuitous shots of skimpy outfits) are tasked with watching their professor’s younger daughter, Irene (Shae Smolik). Throughout the day, they walk the yard, hang around the house, eat the food, play hide and seek — all the activities that are thrilling for a viewer to watch. It almost plays like a mediocre film student taking on Terrence Mallick at one point.
Once the filmmakers decide it’s time to get the story rolling, the women find the amulet while playing hide-and-seek (as we all do). Soon, secrets are uncovered, ghosts begin appearing, and it becomes a race for survival.
“The Hatred” repeats scares from other stories, including a famous one from the 2-sentence horror tales that went around a few years back. Writer and director Michael G. Kehoe doesn’t take time to think about the scares and how they fit into the story. He simply throws ideas with no rationale; the final 30 minutes consists of interchangeable sequences of characters running from one room to the next. There’s a sub-plot with a character’s sick grandmother that goes nowhere, even though there’s a vision of the grandmother in the house and we’re told ol granny even flatlines momentarily. The entire character could have been omitted completely with nothing lost. As is, it serves as another example of ideas that have no payoff.
The acting is overall forgettable; the four leads are devoid of any discernible personality. They could have swapped names halfway through and I would have been none the wiser. The only being in the film to stand out is the horribly realized CGI ghost demon.
By having the Nazi angle, there was the opportunity to play with the theme of history repeating itself. That horror usurps horror, and when the cycle at its end, the bloodshed is ready begin again.
Video
Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Clarity/Detail: I could draw every facial expression from everyone’s scare-acting face — that’s how damn clear it was.
Depth: One word– Blu-ray. Second word — awesome. Third word — effing clear. That being said, this film is rather flat.
Black Levels: Dark as the deep sea where Poseidon himself rests upon his throne of coral — flanked by two Octopi.
Color Reproduction: Grey and black tones, some of it hard to make out.
Flesh Tones: You’ll see a lot of flesh, and it looks Au Naturale.
Noise/Artifacts: Zilch
Audio
Audio Format(s): English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Dynamics: There’s a lot of jump noise in this movie as well as the sounds of being a demon and also the sounds of being sad.
Low Frequency Extension: Not a lot of use here, but when there are low sounds, they sound right. It’s quite the opposite actually, the women have what I would consider a high frequency extension. ha-ha-ha.
Surround Sound Presentation: Full effect. Good surround presentation, with effects doming in clear and where they sound like they should be. I could the sadness and horror as if it were coming from me even — so there’s that.
Dialogue Reproduction: Loud and clear — as all bad dialogue should be.
Extras
The Hatred – Behind the Scenes (1080p; 12:00)
Audio Commentary with Producer Malek Akkad and Writer/Director Michael G. Kehoe
Summary
Stay far, far away!
