Spoilers got dizzy on the merry-go-round.

Horror is one of those genres that has an unwavering promise. All horror films aim to scare or incite fear in one way or another. In that delivery, they can also include messages, morals, dread or shock but they don’t want to leave you hanging without a scare. Once you appreciate the horror, it’s almost like comedy: premise, setup, delivery and punchline (scare). Timing is crucial, tone and style may vary. And this feature gets most things right. Almost.

(Credit: Tubi TV)

Hive (2026) was written and directed by Felipe Vargas. Sasha (Xochitl Gomez) takes a babysitting job as she’s trying to save up and continue her studies. She has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in Coral Grove, where her brother Marco (Aaron Dominguez) works as a landscaper. Coral Grave is very high class neighbourhood, where she finally meet her employer Camille (Tanya Van Graan) who’s hired her to take care of her daughter Zaley (Victoria Firsova). Zaley is spoiled rotten and is definitely going to be a nightmare in more ways than one, having gone through several past babysitters who all left under mysterious circumstances.

The film exceeds at setting up a world of rich houses with rich kids and very innocent-looking playgrounds with bright colours that only hint at the twisted secret they conceal. It all feels very reminiscent of made-for-TV horror episodes like Freddy Krueger with dutch angles and sinister children rhymes. The actual sinister children will eventually appear soon enough. Although that is very well executed, that’s also where it feels like the story hits a wall.

After the first time that Sasha encounters our Children-of-the-Corn now Children-of-the-Playground, there doesn’t seem much to reveal other than doing it again. Sasha eventually runs into Frances (Zenobia Kloppers), and old housekeeper who tells her about the disappearances of all the help in the neighborhood. There’s an unescapable class and racial component here, which exposes how easily the disappearance of lower class employees is swept under the rug. Sasha will finally try to convince her brother Marco and his colleague Darius (Thulani Nzonzo) of what she has seen, but she’s unable to do so before all of them get attacked.

It works fine at the beginning, but it does seem like after we get our first scare we are only getting rehashes of the same scenario again. Each time we do, the effect is weaker. The narrative suffers when we switch characters’ point of view with Marco instead. In a sense, it does feel like a short story that has been tried to be padded up to a full feature but even at its hour-and-a-half length it starts feeling like it goes on a bit long until we finally wrap it all up.

Lighting recommended for a light horror evening. It contains very little scares, although it does execute its eerie premise very well in the first half. I think past the midpoint it starts to overstay its welcome. Worth a watch for a slow night, although I wouldn’t put it at the top at the list.

That will do for now.