The Hateful Eight (2015)
★★★★ — The Hateful Eight (2015)
Right, I'll come clean straight away: I fell asleep watching this. Not once. Not twice. Multiple times. Every single attempt, something about the long coach ride and the snowdrift and the early scenes at Minnie's Haberdashery just sent me under like a warm bath. And we're talking early doors here, not the back end of a three-hour runtime. That's embarrassing to admit about a film I'm now giving four stars, but there it is.
Here's the thing though. Once I actually watched it properly, sat upright with my girlfriend beside me and no chance of quietly nodding off, I genuinely loved it. And I mean loved it. The Hateful Eight is Tarantino doing what Tarantino does best, only stripped back, claustrophobic, and wound so tight it's nearly unbearable by the time it pays off.
The whole film plays out like a stage production that's been dipped in blood and betrayal. Almost everything happens in one location, a snowbound stopover with a cast of strangers who all have very good reasons not to trust each other, and Tarantino wrings every drop of tension out of that setup. It reminded me of Reservoir Dogs, that same pressure-cooker energy of dangerous people in a confined space, circling each other, waiting for someone to blink first. Only here it's the wild west, there's more room for speeches, and the body count is considerably higher.
Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson are both absolutely on fire. Russell is all bluster and grit, and Jackson brings this coiled, watchful intelligence to every scene he's in. The ensemble around them is stacked, and nobody phones it in. The dialogue crackles the way only Tarantino dialogue does, where you're simultaneously entertained and slightly unsettled, laughing at something you probably shouldn't be.
The president's letter reveal is the kind of twist that lands with a proper thud. You feel it in your chest. And the way the film uses chapters to reframe what you've already seen, suddenly showing you the same room from a different angle or a different moment in time, is genuinely clever rather than just stylistic showing off. Well, mostly. It's Tarantino, so there's always a bit of showing off. But it earns it.
So why not five stars? Honestly, I can't fully ignore the fact that this film put me to sleep more times than I can count before I finally made it through. That has to count for something. There's a stretch in the middle where the pacing loosens its grip and the film meanders just enough to let your attention wander. If you're watching alone after a long day, you're in trouble. Tarantino's slow-burn approach usually keeps me locked in, and it does here once the pieces start falling into place, but the build is longer and more indulgent than it perhaps needs to be.
Still, when it works, it really works. This sits comfortably among his best films for me, and I say that as someone who rates his catalogue highly across the board. I adored Inglourious Basterds (2009) for similar reasons, that same theatrical tension, the sense that any scene could explode without warning. The Hateful Eight has that quality in spades once it gets going.
Just maybe don't watch it alone at midnight on the sofa. Learn from my many, many mistakes.
Four stars.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2015 | Watched: 2024-12-03
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: MovieSphere+ Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) · Inglourious Basterds (2009) · Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
More with Samuel L. Jackson: Snakes on a Plane (2006) · Black Snake Moan (2006) · Jumper (2008) · Pulp Fiction (1994)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More mystery: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · One Way or Another (1975)
