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DEEP HATRED (2022)

Directed by Daniela Carvalho, Ale McHaddo.
Written by Fernando Alonso, Ale McHaddo.
Starring Sara Drust, Jeremy Sless, Evan Judson, Marcella Marques, Roseli Silva, Phil Miler, Bruno Buaiz, Ricardo Ripa, Nelson Botter Jr.

Cindy (Sara Drust) returns home to the countryside with her new boyfriend Mark (Jeremy Sless), childhood “friend” Nathan (Evan Judson), and his girlfriend Jennifer (Marcella Marques) after her father passes away unexpectedly. Apparently, her father was into some twisted religious cult which used to sacrifice people in a lake and Cindy’s return awakens evil spirits called “the Drowned” by the locals. Now the Drowned have their sights set on Cindy and her friends.

Starting with the positives, I feel there are some decent moments of horror and creepy imagery to enjoy with DEEP HATRED. The look of the Drowned is pretty freaky. It’s basically a wet zombie-ghost with a muddy bag over its head and chains wrapped around him, but the way this monster is presented—in quick snippets and jump scares, works. Basically, the Drowned is a monster that jumps out of the darkness over and over, but the look is different enough. The atmosphere of the film works as well. Apparently, DEEP HATRED was made in Brazil, but they’re trying to pass the rural area to look like Southern USA. For the most part, it works. The deep forests, rundown farms, and muddy lake make for a great place to stage a horror movie.

The biggest problem with DEEP HATRED is with its pace. Way too much time is spent building up relationship drama between the two couples, hinting at long secret passions between some characters and petty jealousies between others. That makes for great content for a soap opera, but in a horror movie, it’s just filler between the scares. Sometimes, the filler is interesting, but the acting isn’t really enough to sell it. I do think that lead actress Sara Drust is uniquely beautiful in a way that most likely will guarantee her bigger and better films in the future.

DEEP HATRED gets the ball rolling after teasing it for about forty-five minutes and then speeds through the climax in a rushed, slasher-esque fashion. Pair that with an ending that makes not a lick of sense and you’ve got an interesting looking monster in a forgettable movie. Had the film tried a little harder with the scares and provided a bit of depth to them, tying them to the characters, I think DEEP HATRED would have been on to something.

Check out the trailer here!!