Paula Padilla

Metaphysical insanity of the best kind !!!

Bleak, Shakespearean tragedy; a random murder leads to the destruction of two families (primarily males) with only one survivor (barely) at the end. The father/son/brother dynamics within each family parallel each other in a provocative manner, creating a disturbing melodrama. For mature viewers only, I thought it was excellent.

Has anyone noticed that the climactic portions of Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" are clearly patterned after the Manson murders, which are more directly addressed in QT's follow up, the forthcoming "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"? In "The Hateful Eight", Jennifer Jason Leigh's "Daisy Domergue" (Dahmer-goo?) is absolutely diabolical, resembling a vampire with bloody fangs in the movie's latter scenes, and Tarantino even instructed her to play the part as if she were Squeaky Fromme! (Leigh's performance is brilliant and utterly fearless! Reviewers citing misogyny against demonic Daisy are missing the mark!) There are numerous striking similarities between the endings of the two films; for example (without "spoiling" anything) just compare Jennifer Jason Leigh's "Fromme" to that of Dakota Fanning's (fangs and all) in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". (The real Fromme never participated in the Tate-LaBianco murders, but was part of Manson's "gang", and later attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.) Tarantino was already in the process of researching the Manson family while filming "The Hateful Eight", originally intending to write a novel in which the actual murders would comprise a part of the plot. The novel, instead, became the movie, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". This progression of themes, ideas and motifs (on various levels; in this case, the Manson family and their brutal, horrific deeds) is evident throughout the body of Tarantino's work, a creative process often employed by other great artists in film, literature, music...