Originally published October 19, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
Some Kind of Hate, 2015.
Directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer.
Starring Ronen Rubenstein, Sierra McCormick, Grace Phipps, Spencer Breslin, Lexi Atkins, Noah Segan and Michael Polish.
SYNOPSIS:
A bullied teenager is sent to a reform school where he accidentally summons the spirit of a girl, herself a victim of bullying, who takes vengeance on his tormentors.
The saying goes that two wrongs don’t make a right and at the beginning of Some Kind of Hate, one might feel that those two wrongs are bullying and retaliation. But be warned, those two wrongs are actually the acting and the directing.
Some Kind of Hate follows the story of Lincoln (Ronen Rubinstein), a loner who is having some serious issues with bullies, both at home and at school. After violently retaliating when a fellow student pushes him to the ground, Lincoln gets sent to a reform school in the desert where, unsurprisingly, he gets bullied by a gang of fellow students. After escaping their clutches and running into an off limits part of the school, Lincoln accidentally summons the spirit of Moira (Sierra McCormick); a girl who used to be a student at the school and seemingly committed suicide after being bullied herself. She takes it upon herself to wreak bloody vengeance on the bullies that tormented Lincoln as well as tying up a few loose ends for herself. Nabbing a girlfriend on the way, Lincoln must stop Moira before she takes her vengeance too far.
Some Kind of Hate starts with such promise but slowly descends into a bloody mess (pun intended). The delicate subject of self-harm and bullying is slowly torn to shreds and treated without the necessary caution that it deserves. The writers (Adam Egypt Mortimer and Brian DeLeeuw) decide to have Moira uses self-harm as a weapon, making her kills look like suicides; a fairly insensitive foray into what is fundamentally, a mental health issue.
Ronen Rubinstein shines in comparison to his co-stars, playing lonely Lincoln with an equal degree of quiet discomfort and on-the-edge lunacy. This is in comparison to Sierra McCormick who puts in the worst performance in the history of film. She unconvincingly screams and shouts her way through the film, like a spoilt hyperactive drama school brat who got a small part in the school play and desperately wants to be noticed.
Some Kind of Hate has been labelled as a horror film. This is a total lie. The scariest thing about this film is Sierra McCormick’s awful acting. The second scariest thing is the fact that the writers thought that using self-harm as a weapon to kill others was a good idea. This film could have been very different if it had continued to follow the path that the first 30 minutes set and explored the anti-bullying message that it appeared to be sending. Unless you’re craving 1 hour and 23 minutes of the dull feeling of annoyance and outrage, you should stay well away from Some Kind of Hate.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Sadé Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=GIxhevaIcbw
