Cutting to the chase, this is a new breed of slasher flick – one that’s as chilling as it is gory, and fun – but we ain’t talking comedic by any stretch of the imagination.
The simple yet effective plot sees a bullied Californian metalhead named Lincoln (Ronen Rubinstein), who after battering one of his aggressors is inducted into a weird reform programme in the middle of the desert called the Mind’s Eye Academy. However, rather than dealing with his behavioral issues, he immediately has them exacerbated by worse bullying bastards than those he encountered at high school. Teetering dangerously on the brink of ending it, Lincoln inadvertently unleashes the spirit of a female suicide victim named Moira (Sierra McCormick), who suffered similar injustices when she was alive. Moira has one purpose in death, to unleash blood-spilling, supernatural revenge on bullies – like a deadly Lady Justice.
For his big screen debut, co-writer/director Adam Egypt Mortimer has delivered a movie that deals with the delicate and perpetually topical issue of bullying (as well as self-harm cutting) in a way that gets the message across without ever being preachy. Sure it’s peppered with genre tropes, but Mortimer circumnavigates generic slasher territory by populating proceedings with an array of interesting individuals; he also saturates everything in an ambiguity that questions the guilt and/or innocence of everyone involved – none more so than chief protagonist Lincoln.
The cherry on this horrific yet thoughtful cake though is the ghostly avenger, Moira. The writers have pulled her kill-skills from supernatural folklore, having her perform like a human voodoo doll: every lethal act she performs on herself is subsequently, and immediately, physically transferred to the body of her intended victim. McCormack is superbly believable in what is such an off the scale mental role, amping up her performance to 11. Rubinstein is equally impressive, especially when he decides to try taking down the seemingly unkillable, killer – it’s the final reel segment that sees director Mortimer go into vicious overdrive.
Ultimately, Some Kind Of Hate is a sumptuously splatterific fright flick with a message, played out against a fittingly raucous, metal soundtrack – and a fitting addition to the newly launched FrightFest Presents banner.
Come watch Some Kind Of Hate at Silver Screams on October 15. Silver Screams is an exclusive event for TeamRock+ Members in the UK. Further details will be sent to members via email.
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