Film4 FrightFest 2015
Lincoln Taggert is a loner metal head who is regularly bullied at school. After a particularly brutal event, Lincoln loses his cool and hurts one of his tormentors badly. Following this incident, Lincoln is sent to a meditation based reform school where he encounters a new group of bullies and eventually wishes they would all be dead. This awakens the vengeful spirit of Moira who attacks his tormentors one by one as she herself being highly disturbed by past bullying she was a victim of before her death.
The story here is a fairly basic revenge story where a ghost does some killing for the person who summoned them. Where things are somewhat less basic is that the ghost is more easily talked to although not easily reasoned with. Moira’s attacks are brutal and bloody, yet she is not a very spooky or creepy presence. She is not trying to give shivers but wants her victims to suffer as she did. This story was co-written by Adam Egypt Mortimer and Brian DeLeeuw for both of whom this is a first writing credit. However, it does not feel like a first script as the story is polished and doesn’t have any glaring plot holes or issues. The characters, while a bit cliché as delinquents, are well defined and they feel like real teenagers put in a crazy situation. The characters are highly flawed human beings but still show sides to them that make the viewer care if they live or die. Mortimer also serves as director here, something he has more experience in and this may have made a difference in how the story was handled. The direction in general shows that has talent and can direct his young cast.
This young cast is led by Ronen Rubinstein as Lincoln, Grace Phipps as Kaitlin, and Sierra McCormick as Moira. All three are experienced actors and give nuanced performances imbuing their characters with depth and helping the viewer care for them, even for the tortured soul that is Moira. Their characters are both good and bad and all three play with this very well, turning these dark beings into believable teenagers. The rest of the cast turns in decent performances during the short screen time most of them get.
Horror fans will be happy with the amount of blood here as the victims are maimed in increasingly bloody ways. However, there is almost no gore to speak of besides one scene in which is looks very good. That being said, all the blood seen looks realistic and its sources seem very painful which bring on the horror element to the forefront. A lot of the horror here comes from the very real and very relatable threat of bullying in school and from adult sources who are people who are supposed to be in charge and to be resources for the troubled teens.
Some Kind of Hate starts as a slower burn type of movie until the first person dies, then things rev up and the story finds its pace. While the scares and gore is on the lower end, the blood is plentiful and satisfying which makes the film a more successful revenge movie than a horror one. Its story being based in something, bullying, most have been a victim of at one point or another in their lives brings this home even more.