The horror genre is rife with films that often seem like mere replicas of one another. For example, in 2005, both The Descent and The Cave told tales of a group of spelunking friends who find themselves pursued by cave-dwelling monsters. Similarly, 1999 saw the release of The Haunting and House on Haunted Hill, both remakes of classic horror movies that revolved around a group of people trapped in a mysterious mansion. Even renowned films like An American Werewolf in London and The Howling can sometimes be challenging for the average moviegoer to distinguish, as they both center on werewolves.
While a few of these duplicates manage to deliver quality, more often than not, they fall short. In many cases, these imitations are produced years apart, permitting the new film’s creators to be overly influenced by their predecessors. Take, for example, the 2012 film, Lockout, in which a convict embarks on a mission to rescue the president’s daughter from a space station-turned-prison, controlled by inmates. This action-packed film by Luc Besson unmistakably borrowed its plot from the 1981 classic, Escape From New York, where Snake Plissken ventures into a New York City transformed into a prison, also controlled by inmates, to save the president.
The extent of this homework copying even led to John Carpenter suing Besson for $2.4 million.
This brings us to the recent release of The Hive, which is directed by Jared Allmond. In his first feature film, Allmond introduces Albie (Timothy Haug) and Penny (Christie Griffin), a couple on the brink of divorce. After a night out, they return home to discover another couple (Miles Taber and Julianne Ruck), claiming to live there, and even their neighbor, Mark (Mark Norwood), acts as if he doesn’t know them.
Puzzled, the couple seeks refuge with Penny’s sister, Kimmy (Whitney Reade), who lives nearby. Following Kimmy’s advice, they infiltrate their own home, only to be taken hostage by the enigmatic strangers. However, it becomes evident that the odd couple desires something that Albie and Penny are entirely unaware of, and as time passes, the bizarre events of the night take a turn for the even stranger and more perilous.
The plot of The Hive follows a familiar pattern. It draws clear inspiration from the 1956 sci-fi horror film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where both films explore a subtle invasion by a seemingly emotionless group of invaders. Additionally, The Stepford Wives can be seen as another film that aligns with the thematic direction The Hive attempts to pursue.
In both movies, it’s evident that the antagonists are far from normal. These strangers fall into the eerie realm known as the “uncanny valley,” where the audience senses something is amiss, yet the full extent of their divergence is not revealed until the climax of the film.
Unfortunately, The Hive stumbles into a common pitfall at this juncture. While the audience is left uncertain about the nature of the home invaders, there are far too many clues provided that steer us in a particular direction. The film lacks any significant misdirection, and even with the revelation of the other individuals involved in the invasion, we are already well informed about what will transpire. As a result, the climax loses its appeal, and there is nothing compelling for the audience to anticipate beyond this point.
In The Hive, the payoff is certainly not commensurate with the buildup, leaving the audience somewhat dissatisfied.
Regrettably, the film’s conclusion fails to address any of the issues that arose from its lackluster climax. It seems the director aimed for an emotional gut punch for the audience, a final blow to push us over the edge, but the result is rather underwhelming. The Hive did not invest enough time in developing Albie and Penny’s characters to enable the audience to form a genuine connection with them. We didn’t gain sufficient insight into their circumstances or lives to genuinely care about their fate. Consequently, when the movie reaches its conclusion, very few, if any, viewers would experience anything beyond a sense of, “Well, that’s unfortunate for them.”
The film hurried through character development, leaping directly into the plot, and this choice ultimately detracted from the intended ending.
I rate The Hive two out of five stars. It represents a commendable effort from director Jared Allmond, and I believe that with additional time and experience, he has the potential to consistently create well-rounded feature films. The Hive could have improved by dialing back its pace, providing room for the characters to breathe and evolve before diving into the core of the story. While The Hive is, in a way, a movie about doppelgangers, it itself becomes a doppelganger of other films.
It’s not a poor clone, but one that could have benefited from more time in the “cloning vats” to truly come into its own.