Hate 2 O (2006)

Hate 2 O (2006) aka H20
Director: Alex Infascelli
Writers: Alex Infascelli, Vince Villani
Strange events begin when Olivia (Chiara Conti) and her four friends hold a purifying water fast at her secluded cottage. Docile and introverted, Olivia is easy prey for her deceitful guests, who ridicule her and her long-lost twin - an unborn child 'absorbed' by Olivia during the childbirth that killed her mother. Tormented, Olivia ferociously removes the only palpable link she has with her dead twin - a tooth lodged beneath the skin of her shoulder. But discarding it down the drain only brings the horrific past to the surface. Just as water awakens this hidden life, it is water that will gruesomely take life away...
'Hate 2 0 is a slow brooding independent horror/thriller from Italian director of Almost Blue (2000) Alex Infascelli. It came out last year, but is now available in English language form. The plot is about a female bonding session in a secluded holiday house that can only be reached via boat, it is upset when they decide to do the ultimate body cleanse by drinking pure water only and fasting from food. This sudden change in body balance causes one of the women Oliva to release long suppressed anxiety about losing her twin sister at birth, this sends her into a spiraling psychotic state. On paper should of been perfect cinema for me as I usually adore psychological headfuck cinema but for all its lovely rolling guitars, pretty visuals and actresses, and its unique atmosphere the plot was trite tree hugging hippy nonsense, that I found myself on a few occasions losing all interest in. Its not all lost as the sound fx and music are grade-A, cinematography likewise is of an high standard some of the dream sequences like the wonderful rain of blood insestious twin kiss or the scene Olivia talks to herself in a mirror for it to break as we see a lightbulb fill up with an embryo inside are amazing, hope it's not another 6 years till Infascelli delivers up another film, I just hope his artistic talent is matched by the material.'

(6½ out of 10)