Review for Some Kind of Hate

(Originally posted on fight-evil.com)

*This is my first-time viewing of the film*

Throughout the first thirty minutes, I was deeply enjoying this movie. A bullied kid finally strikes back, and gets sent to a new-age type anger management camp in the middle of the desert. Alas, he can't escape bullies there either, as three alpha-male dicks start picking on him. It's when he runs into a restricted portion of the camp, angry at the bullies, wanting them dead, when the spirit of a former patient begins to get revenge for the both of them.

Partially, this might help explain my overall lukewarm opinion of the film as a whole. Most of the people who were killed were bullies, or covered up for bullies, and thus, I had little to no pity for them. An alpha-male dick that makes people feel miserable gets killed, and the audience is supposed to care? Why?

That's just part of it, though. The movie really feels as though it's unraveling once you get past the thirty minute mark, and while the rest of the film isn't entirely horrendous, it reeks of mediocrity. I didn't much care for the design of the ghost, nor did I care for much of the story past a certain point. Honestly, it felt like Friend Request (2016) all over again, only (and here's the bad part) a little bit worse.

The production quality was good all around, and while the gore wasn't anything special, I don't think it was horrible either. The main characters, played by Ronen Rubinstein and Grace Phipps, did a really good job, and hell, there are rather moving scenes and discussions of bullying throughout the film. If they threw out some of the elements in the second half of the film, I think it could have been a lot better. As it is, Some Kind of Hate doesn't live up to the potential the beginning of the film promises. While it's a somewhat interesting story, the approach didn't work for me, and overall, it's just a below average flick. 5.5/10.