After the thrilling convolutions – narrative and moral – of Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and even Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino has stopped challenging himself.

Django Unchained is where he became his own yes man, and by the looks of The Hateful Eight, he hasn’t yet remedied the issue.

Though my mind could change with another viewing. That’s the power of Tarantino.

It doesn’t try to entertain. Not for a long while, at least. Therefore, much of the mainstream audience is out. The more vocal ones will dismiss it as a proper film. Further, it doesn’t emphasise on the viscerality that Tarantino is known for – there is violence, of course, but it isn’t the point of the film. But that’s possibly because the so-called ‘gratuitous’ violence just met with some ‘gratuitous’ chopping at the censor board. That accounts for the sleeping members in the audience. For a lot of people, it would be quite unfathomable on why the film even got made.

The Hateful Eight is not for the faint of heart. From its not-so-subtle references to racism to the gore and the violence, the film is a lot to take in. If you can stomach a brutal, no-holds-barred movie about post-Civil War America, this one must not be missed.

Tarantino’s Western is coldblooded, too calculated to actually be considered chilling. In Tarantino’s territory the violence is perpetuated with flippancy. His characters don’t care about human life. And frankly, we can’t bring ourselves to care whether these characters live or die.

The mystery is mysteriously threadbare, the chapter breaks are momentum breakers and the ethnic slurs leave a bad taste. The violence is of course gratuitous and gimmicky. The visuals garner attention but what’s the point? It’s hard to figure!

The Hateful Eight contains everything we expect from the auteur — ultra violence and memorable characters and shocks and profanity and long stretches of dialogue — and yet, while as indulgently Tarantinoey as it can be, this is a rough watch, a film meant to cause discomfort, to repel, even to disgust.

The premise of The Hateful Eight is similar to the filmmaker’s own Reservoir Dogs .

It is also similar in many ways to a lot of other films of different genres. But that’s Tarantino, a fan with a mental library of movie myths. And as always, he makes something original and wildly entertaining out of it.

The Quentin Tarantino’s film, unfurled as “chapters”, feels like an actual short story for a cold winter day.

As a whole, the film is very well put together with every Tarantino trick, but unfortunately it lacks the magnetism to draw.

Tarantino is an ace at using a repetitive question-and-answer format to build up menace and tension, but both qualities are in short supply in The Hateful Eight. Mistrust is spelled out loud and clear rather than felt, and when the bullets start to fly, the movie becomes a familiar bloodbath that is played for both shocks and laughs.

Tarantino’s cinema is not for the faint-hearted. However, the maker of Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, in his by now famous signature style, once again gives you substance to lose sleep over.