Marmite at Minnie's Haberdashery.
Quentin Tarantino writes and directs and it stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Lee, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Micahel Madsen, Demian Bichir and Bruce Dern. Music is scored by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Robert Richardson.
Wyoming, wintertime, and an assortment of suspect characters are holed up at Minnie's Haberdashery while a blizzard rages outside. Soon enough suspicions and ugly human traits come to the fore...
Tarrantino is on a Western/Southern/Oater/Civil War kick these days, here following on from Django Unchained, this is set just post the Civil War. Proudly homaging genres he loves, he throws all his trademarks at The Hateful Eight for glorious results - that is on proviso you happen to be a fan of his in the first place.
Picture is split into two halves. First half sets up the characters who come to be at Minnie's, the conversations are pungent with Tarrantino's caustic and comedic writing, the characterisations equally so, whilst we have been treated to some absolutely gorgeous Colorado vistas. There's a constant sense of mistrust in the air, while racism, misogyny and political fall outs pulse away in set up scenarios.
Then it's the second half, where after a wee bit of narration that had me thinking my Blu-ray player had somehow started playing The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, hell then comes to Minnie's! It quickly becomes evident we have been part of a Tarrantino parlour game, a game of Clue - cum - Ten Little Indians, only in a Wild West setting, and with blood, bones and bile in full effect.
The whole thing is wonderfully stylish in the way that Tarrantino is known for. The cartoonish horror mingles with more biting observations on humanity, the violence shocks to get a reaction from the viewer, for better or worse, and always there is humour, where Hateful Eight proves itself to be one damn funny film.
Morricone scores it as cartoon horror with Western strains, and it's magnificent, it sounds like the evil twin to his score for The Untouchables. The cast are super (though a couple of them are not given much to do), with Leigh standing out, and Messrs Jackson and Russell hold glorious excessive court. Costuming is most appealing, as is the set-design for Minnie's. And director QT? Well he does his thing, chapters and verse and playful filmic cunning. 9/10