Cabin Fever

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 2017)

Blizzard weather conditions lead to eight strangers sharing the warmth of an outskirts cabin, including a bounty hunter suspicious that someone is planning to free his prisoner in this mystery thriller from Quentin Tarantino. It is highly atmospheric stuff thanks a mix of moody music from Ennio Morricone and mobile cinematography from Robert Richardson with shots that slow creep up and down the characters. The film is divided into six chapters. The first three vary in excitement as they merely set up the tension and animosity in the air; the final three chapters though are powerhouse stuff with unexpected bursts of graphic violence, an intriguing murder mystery and the shadiness of everyone's background story (are any of them telling the whole truth?). This is, however, also one of those movies where it is nearly impossible to find a single character to care about or like, due in part to how little insight we get into anyone's actual background. And yet, this is perhaps the very purpose of 'The Hateful Eight': to create an emotional distance between the viewer and the flawed characters in order that we are forced to witness the power of hate, greed and revenge tear the characters apart without necessarily rooting for anyone to succeed. However one cuts it, this is a surefire interesting experience as long as one stays patient during the slower-moving first three chapters.