While Hate20 takes a sip from Neil Marshall's brilliant distaff-dipped horror by putting its all-female cast in isolation and having their minds play tricks on them, don't be fooled by the comparisons. Watching this dull, tepid Italian import is about as exciting as contemplating a glass of water that's half-empty.

We're supposed to believe that pin-thin Olivia (Chiara Conti) and four of her gaunt gal-pals decide to go on a water-fast — and what's more, the best place to do that is at a secluded, derelict and downright gloomy cottage on an island in the middle of the woods. It's been in Olivia's family for years and there's no TV, no electricity, no food, no men, and certainly no fun. The girls hike, sleep, snipe and basically kill time till it comes time to kill each other.

…Or is it a spiteful spirit who's picking them off?

By the time you find out, you may be drowning in a sea of boredom. I guess it's no secret, since all the press material on the movie mentions it, but the horror comes in when we find out that Olivia carries the gruesome remains of an absorbed twin inside her body. Tormented by her friends' cruel remarks about this rare affliction, and the childhood memories the family cabin harbors and thereby releases upon her return, Olivia goes a bit insane one night and begins to hack away at her body, looking for her twin.

That bloody bit is about the only worthwhile scene in Hate20, but since it doesn't come in till about five hours into the film (okay, more like 50 minutes), I'd hardly say it slakes any kind of thirst by then.

In short, Hate20 will leave you high and dry.

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