It’s perhaps not that surprising that the “amnesia horror” sub-genre has slowly chiseled a name out for itself over time. Memento came out of the gate strong with the concept over a decade ago and every subsequent attempt at the idea has been trying to recapture the same magic ever since. It’s easy to see why, with it being an appealing concept for how immediately engaging it forces itself to be. We usually open on our protagonist looking disheveled, trying to string together random clues that we see plastered around the room in a (seemingly) chaotic order. Right from the jump these sorts of films make you hungry for answers like no other, and The Hive is no different. Of course what’s ultimately important is how satisfying those answers are and it’s a very mixed bag when it comes to The Hive.

The ever-growing Nerdist Industries label has gotten into the distribution game with The Hive being their first effort, and it seemingly pushes all of the buttons that it knows its audience are fans of: zombies, lots of gore, an attractive cast, and a hook of a concept. Freshman director David Yarovesky’s film, which made a big splash at Comic-Con this year, throws you into a dank room with Adam Goldstein (Gabriel Basso)—of course he doesn’t remember what his name is, or anything else for that matter—as he tries to figure out what’s going on before a parasite completely takes over his body (in case the stakes weren’t already high enough).

It’s a bit of a rough start heading into The Hive, as we’re greeted to the all-too familiar set pieces in films of this nature of Adam going through his wallet, looking at photos, and slowly recalling his life in order to get himself out of this puzzle. The walls have been decked out to act as some sort of REMEMBER board, as notes like DON’T LET ANYONE IN NO MATTER WHAT and MONSTER are splayed across the place. Of course by the end of the film Adam has filled up every inch of these walls accordingly with memory vomit. The plot thickens as Adam discovers a number of terrible rashes on him that look like an exit wound mated with a Facehugger’s egg sac, as well as the corpse of someone who presumably was suffering from the same thing he is. There’s also a pretty prominent black light motif going on in the place too, just to crank up the visual weirdness factor a little more.

Through many of Adam’s flashbacks we witness his burgeoning relationship with Katie (Kathryn Prescott) and it’s a surprisingly charming courtship between the two of them. There are a number of sweet bonding moments between them (there’s a particularly cute one involving notes) that gives some actual weight and legitimacy to their relationship. It very much works in The Hive’s favor that there is a love story coursing underneath all of it, and that it even raises a rather strong treaty on the bonds of friendship. There are many moments where we see the insidious mentality of “the hive” parasite trying to rip apart this group of friends as literally a singular collective consciousness is put into competition with a body of individual minds to see who is stronger. If you squint really hard here you can see some poignant things being said about free will versus a mass-produced mentality.

I also appreciated that a film that largely seems to be marketed as a straight zombie flick is actually all about collective consciousness and the interconnectedness of all minds. It’s a welcome dimension to this sort of outbreak story that I haven’t seen explored before. Rather than just broaching the area, they really dig into the concept and get as bonkers with it as possible.

It’s kind of an exciting turn then when the film introduces the idea that Adam isn’t just regaining his memory, but in fact someone else’s as well. This is actually an interesting take on the material and a nice subversion to the usual way this sort of stuff tracks. You’re then getting presented with two narratives through all of this, the one that got Adam here in the first place, and the one that’s happening between Subject 14 and Dr. Baker, who were studying the virus beforehand. The collective telepathy that the virus provides acts as a solid means of exploring this idea, while keeping the structure of all of this relatively fresh.

In spite of the film starting at the “end” with Adam, it’s more of an in media res sort of situation than a full-on Memento riff. We still basically get to see Adam’s story play out sequentially leading up to the beginning of the movie, there’s just a lot more spliced in between to remix the narrative in a way that tries to be inventive. It gets points for the effort, and some of the construct helps and is aided by how it’s being told (it also stylistically makes sense, reflecting the state of Adam’s mind when the film begins), but I’m still not convinced it was absolutely necessary. Especially when as the film goes on you’re spending more and more time in these flashback sequences and less with Adam alone in the present. It’s like they wanted the set-up in order to give the film an interesting hook, but then once it’s established they increasingly run away from it. I had heard that the film stylistically doesn’t have any shots that are longer than ten seconds—a smart way of reflecting Adam’s fractured mental state and short-term memory—but if that is going on here it’s never noticeable, nor does it feel like a film that’s edited any differently than normal. In which case it might also be an example of more being less with this film.

In a similar sense, there’s much that The Hive fumbles that holds it back from achieving greatness. Much of Adam hollering to an empty room for answers feels tired and cliché as soon as it begins, and he certainly doesn’t stop there. The “wormhole” effect whenever Adam pieces together a memory feels wholly unnecessary and a visual trick that’s more awkward than connective. There are also plenty of clunky contrivances throughout the script, like Adam conveniently establishing that he has a phobia of being stuck in a room by himself (due to a traumatic experience getting lost in the woods when he was younger), and lo and behold, here he is trapped in his very worst fear on top of everything else. Katie also awkwardly mentions that her grandfather had Alzheimer’s in what’s meant to have a larger resonance in comparison to what’s going on with Adam and the virus now. It just feels obvious and shoehorned in with nothing really gained from it other than an unearned moment of shouting, “Oh my God!” over a false revelation.

The Hive however is at its strongest when it actually pulls away from the flashy carnage of the zombie idea and instead focuses on the science that got them there. There’s some truly brutal material here with brain surgery and experimentation that should get under your skin in the right way. The information that we’re presented about what the purpose of this virus is and how it’s trying to be controlled is really engaging material. I’d actually be interested in seeing a sequel—now that this baggage is all out of the way—pushing forward the story that Dr. Baker is dealing with, as opposed to focusing on the victims. There are some fascinating ideas there.

It takes some time to get to this stuff though, and The Hive definitely has a slow start to the scares (and there are some really painful moments in the first half hour, in particular). There are repeated moments of blowing out the soundtrack to build some sort of fear, but the effect is more annoying than frightening. It’s not really until the second half of the film that things really start to heat up, but it’s a satisfying second half and one that’s worth trudging through the weeds to arrive at. The film builds to a certain confidence and individuality (ironically enough) where all of this begins to gel together, even if it is just doing its best impression of The Exorcist and The Thing for the bulk of its second half. There are still some decent scares that are achieved though, with there being some very unsettling material once you see this virus fully take over Jessica (Gabrielle Walsh) and begin doing its work, or the wonderful set piece where Subject 14 counts down to Dr. Baker’s end. It also doesn’t hurt that the symbiote parasite that causes the virus doesn’t look that much unlike the black oil from The X-Files.

As the film expands on all of this and heads into its final act, there’s definitely a renewed energy and driving force behind it as we learn that Adam is momentarily in a fugue state of sorts with the virus, meaning he’s only got a limited time to put the rest of this together before his individuality is lost completely and he’s infected irreversibly. There are moments within The Hive that work very well, and it’s a promising first effort from director Yarovesky, but it ultimately ends up feeling half-baked in spite of it tackling on a deeper than usual story.

‘The Hive’ begins playing in select theaters September 14th.