Movie · 2015 · Drama, Mystery, Western · 3h 8m · R · English
Curator score: 7.9/10 (2M ratings)
No one comes up here without a damn good reason.
Overview
Bounty hunters seek shelter from a raging blizzard and get caught up in a plot of betrayal and deception.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.9/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 4.02/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Metacritic: 68
TMDB: 7.8/10
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Production
The Weinstein Company, Double Feature Films, FilmColony
Cast
Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoë Bell, Lee Horsley, Gene Jones, Keith Jefferson, Craig Stark, Belinda Owino, Channing Tatum, Quentin Tarantino
Where to watch
Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A tense, talky chamber-western with nasty humor, strong performances, and a slow-burn mystery that pays off in eruptions of violence. It’s especially rewarding if you like ensemble pressure-cooker storytelling, elaborate dialogue, and morally rotten characters trapped together.
Best for
fans of dialogue-driven thrillers
viewers who like ensemble cast showpieces
people who enjoy bleak, violent westerns
audiences drawn to mystery-box plotting
Tarantino fans
Skip if
you want a fast-moving western
you dislike long stretches of conversation
you’re put off by graphic violence and racial hostility
you prefer sympathetic characters
you want a traditional frontier adventure
Overview
The Hateful Eight is a snowbound siege movie disguised as a western, and that setup is the point. Tarantino turns a cramped stagecoach stop into a pressure cooker of suspicion, performance, and escalating cruelty, with every conversation carrying the threat of a gunshot or a lie being exposed.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the ensemble. Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russell, and Walton Goggins all get room to spar, scheme, and dominate the frame, and the film’s long-form structure lets the tension accumulate in ugly, satisfying layers. The violence is extreme, but it feels earned by the slow grind of mistrust.
Bottom line
It’s not for everyone: the runtime is substantial, the pace is deliberate, and the film’s cynicism is relentless. But if you like your westerns mean, theatrical, and built around dialogue as much as gunplay, this is one of Tarantino’s most forceful late-career films.
Top Letterboxd reviews
rach (5★) · 6105 likes
are we sure tarantino made this film? there were no feet shots
shannon (4.5★) · 4232 likes
do you ever find that channing tatum sometimes just shows up in movies where you don't expect him to..... because for me it's like half his filmography
Eli Hayes (4.5★) · 3988 likes
"Youuuu gonnaaaa maaaake aaaa deaaalllwithhh thissss diaaabolicaaalll biiiiiiiiitch!?!"
Hugely visceral & downright disgusting.Tarantino's best film since the 1990s.Jennifer Jason Leigh steals the show.(Honorable mention for Goggins, obviously.)
Ralph (4★) · 3040 likes
Just finished the extended version which I liked. The characters are more fleshed out, there are more clever set ups and foreshadowing. It's a different experience from the film and worth a watch for both fans and those who've never seen it.
NOTE: There was one frame that wasn't rendered in episode 3 which was very odd. Please fix that Netflix. This crew didn't bust their asses to shoot this in 70mm just to have an intern not render the export properly.
SilentDawn (5★) · 2519 likes
100/100
I wasn’t prepared for this. Obviously, I went into The Hateful Eight with the same expectations as I do with every newly-minted Tarantino flick. I wanted snappy dialogue, grand moments of violence, and masterful sequences of flourishing character, and I got all of that, for sure. However, I didn’t expect to walk out of the theater with a stupid grin on my face, barely able to walk because of the rampaging poignancy and blazing hatred woven through every frame.… more
2012 · Drama, Western · 2h 45m · R · Curator 9.4/10 (5M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Peacock Premium, Starz, Philo, Peacock Premium Plus
Another Tarantino western built on sharp dialogue, escalating violence, and a brutal moral universe.
2007 · Crime, Thriller, Western · 2h 2m · R · Curator 9.6/10 (3.1M ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus, Philo
A stark, suspenseful crime western where menace builds through silence and inevitability.