Some Kind of Hate Review
Low budget horror has to take advantage of a creative script (The Pact), clever satire (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil), or budget-defying innovations in special effects (Hatchet) in order to be successful or at the very least entertaining. When a low budget horror film fails to meet at least one of these criteria, it is usually doomed to fail. Sadly, Some Kind of Hate is a film that has shallow horror tropes that far outweigh any creativity brought to the table.
Brooding teenagers are in great supply in the horror genre. It takes fresh material (though not horror, Chronicle is a good example) in order to drive this character motif, and there is nothing fresh about these group of misfits. Our main character oozes dark pensiveness with his ceaseless sullen ground-stare, hunched shoulders, and clenched fists. The actor is trying so hard to pull off Edward Cullen-level gloom that you're cheering for him to get taken out to keep from slitting your own wrists.
***SPOILERS***
That last sentence is more relatable to the film with a little more knowledge of the synopsis. The one interesting aspect of the film is the spirit's characteristics. And may I place an emphasis on the word "characteristics" as opposed to "character", as the vengeful spirit herself is as unbearable to watch as our protagonist. But I digress...The spirit operates as its own voodoo doll of sorts. Whenever she is in the general vicinity of another person, she can hurt herself and thereby cause harm to the individual. Given the very heavy cut-laden emo vibe of the film, it was a bleak supernatural parallel of some of our more desperately disparaged youth. Not to mention the spirit's connection to our protagonist behaved like a parasitic bond in which the spirit fed off his pent up rage and hate.
But this interesting spiritual concept is poorly conceived with weak acting, a motivation-flaying script, and perhaps the most boring use of buckets of fake blood I have yet to witness (as it turns out the voodoo killing thing gets old pretty quick). Not even the Andy Samberg of horror (Noah Segan) could save the film, due mostly to his inexplicable lack of screentime, especially considering he was the only actor I was excited to watch.
I'm not saying I'm necessarily done with the picked-on teenage revenge movie, but when the film is so self-aware of its morbid moral purpose, it becomes a (postmodern) gothic PSA that has you scoffing at the incessant whining rather than rooting for the "good guy". And when you have your evil spirit going toe-to-toe with your protagonist on the whining scale, you know your film is going to get annoying to your audience pretty quick.
Horror Qualifier: 8/10
Horror Quality: 4/10
Film Quality: 2/10