Blood-Soaked Western Thriller On Netflix Brings Excellent Performances From Star-Studded Cast
If you’re a fan of the Western genre, you’re more than likely aware of Quentin Tarantino’s classic 2015 who-dun-it thriller, The Hateful Eight. The film, which is aptly the eighth entry into Tarantino’s feature length filmography, offers a claustrophobic bloodbath sure to make even the most hard-boiled viewer a little bit squeamish. For those who aren’t aware, The Hateful Eight is currently streaming on Netflix, both as a feature film, and as an extended cut in the form of a miniseries.
Developing The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight was written and directed by legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, and originally served as a follow-up to his 2012 Western Django Unchained. In fact, original drafts for the film even included Jamie Foxx’s Django as one of the main characters, though Tarantino ultimately decided that the film functions best when each of the eponymous eight are cold-blooded monsters. He also originally conceived of the script as a novel rather than a screenplay, and only agreed to produce the film after Samuel L. Jackson convinced him that it would work.
Setting The Tone
The film opens with a shot of a stagecoach roaring through the snowy hills of Wyoming, somewhere outside of the town of Red Rock. Inside the stagecoach, a bounty hunter named John Ruth, AKA the Hangman, is handcuffed to a woman named Daisy Domergue, who is due to be hanged by the law the following day. As the narrative of The Hateful Eight kicks off, the stagecoach comes across a few wandering stragglers caught in the snow, including a Union Army veteran named Major Marquis Warren and a renegade Southerner named Chris Mannix, who claims to be the newly elected sheriff of Red Rock.
The Hateful Haberdashery
As the blizzard becomes unmanageable, the gang agree to convene at a nearby bed and breakfast known as Minnie’s Haberdashery, where they encounter a handful of other wayward travelers with mysterious backstories. As The Hateful Eight continues to build toward a blood-soaked climax, each resident of Minnie’s Haberdashery becomes increasingly paranoid about the others, leading to a highly suspenseful evening of finger-pointing, gun-slinging, and even a bit of coffee poisoning.
A Star-Studded Spectacle
The cast of The Hateful Eight is positively loaded to the brim with spectacular talent, touting career-high performances from the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Fallout‘s Walton Goggins. A few other familiar faces pop up as well, but I’d rather not spoil their names here, so you have a chance to see them join the cast in a few surprise cameos.
Experience The Hateful Eight On Netflix
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The Hateful Eight is one of my all-time favorite movies, and not just because I was lucky enough to see the film projected in beautiful 70 millimeter Ultra Panavision back in 2015. Today, those interested in watching the movie can stream it in its original feature length, or check out the limited series version which premiered on Netflix in 2019. The series breaks up the pacing and makes the film a bit more digestible, while adding roughly 18 minutes of additional footage.
Any way you slice it, The Hateful Eight is streaming on Netflix. Just be sure to dim the lights, fetch a blanket, and lock your doors before pulling this one up at home, and prepare to settle in for a nerve-wracking cinematic experience.
