Connect with us

Home Video

[Review] ‘Some Kind Of Hate’ is Conflicting With its Subject, Characters

Published

on

Some Kind of Hate

Bullying is one of the topics du jour at the moment. I’m not hesitant to admit that I was bullied for a long time in school, which is another topic for discussion elsewhere. Needless to say, it sucked and made things difficult. On the upside, I ended up gravitating towards horror more as an escape, which probably kept me sane. Well, relatively. Speaking of which, the topic of bullying is no stranger to the horror genre, what with films like Carrie and Evil Speak using it as the basis for revenge. For his debut feature, co-writer/director Adam Egypt Mortimer treads the bullying and the subsequent revenge road with Some Kind Of Hate, which is part of the “FrightFest Presents” label. What starts off as being an interesting spin on the genre, quickly turns into something that will divide viewers.

Lincoln Taggert (Ronen Rubinstein) has it rough. Coming from a broken home, he’s constantly bullied in high school. So much so, that he one day reaches his boiling point and stabs one of his bullies in the face with a fork. The result has Lincoln being sent to a reform school called Mind’s Eye Academy. While there, Lincoln hits it off with goofball Isaac (Spencer Breslin), and even starts to have a budding romance with a girl named Kaitlin (Grace Phipps). However, Lincoln’s bully issues resurface, thanks to Willie (Maestro Harrell). Fed up, Lincoln accidentally conjures up the spirit of Moira (Sierra McCormick), a girl who was also bullied at the academy and ended up dying because of it. Moira seeks revenge on behalf of Lincoln, but in doing so, ends up putting everyone at the school in danger.

Credit to Mortimer and co-writer Brian DeLeeuw for putting effort into character development with this one. Rather than just focusing on the protagonist in Lincoln (who is expertly played by Rubinstein), Mortimer instead devotes time to giving many of the characters some meat. Lincoln is presented as someone with whom to be sympathized, but also has a dark, brooding side. Even after all he’s been through, he won’t succumb to the mindless revenge Moira seeks to dole out to his tormentors. Likewise, Kaitlin is a character that has her own demons, but is also likeable and the romance between her and Lincoln is believable. Isaac could’ve been one of those one-note comic relief characters, but again Mortimer puts in a sympathetic element to the character that endears him to the viewer. Heck, even the bullies are given attention from the development side, instead of being stuck in the stereotype mould. This all makes for a multi-layered set of characters that are far more interesting than what you’d normally expect to find in a film like this. It also helps that the actors get it, and in turn put forth some good performances.

Which brings us to Moira. Again, Mortimer and DeLeeuw give the character a bit of depth rather than being a monotonous antagonist. Moira is presented as a tragic character, and is made to be sympathetic, up until she starts killing more indiscriminately. How she kills is a rather interesting twist, as well: Any damage she inflicts on herself is reflected back onto the victim, and any damage inflicted onto Moira is reflected right back. As such, Moira’s method of killing is largely relegated to slashing herself. However, this starts to become less impactful after the third kill, leaving many of the kills to blur together and not stand out. Furthermore, the film at times seems obsessed with focusing on the act, which isn’t exactly the most pleasant to watch over and over. I get it, but the constant reliance on it ventures into torture porn territory, not to mention the suicide overtones. Eventually, Lincoln figures out how to hurt Moira back, which by that point the viewer will have figured it out as well. This unfortunately leads to some inconsistencies with the “rules”.

The film’s first misstep is when it bends its own rules regarding Moira. Moira explains to Lincoln that his anger brought her back. So logically, Lincoln telling Moira that he no longer needs her causes her pain. Later on, it’s discovered that inflicting damage to oneself causes that damage to be inflicted onto Moira. But by the end of the film, even with that occurring, Moira still isn’t dead. So she gets her skull bashed in, with nothing happening to the person doing it. It might seem nitpicky, but it bugged me. Then there’s the film’s assumption of the viewer accepting its passage of time. While the obvious outcome of Kaitlin and Lincoln’s relationship is a given, the film assumes that just having the two interact on-screen for less than ten minutes is justifiable enough to make the leap. The same goes for the friendship between Isaac and Lincoln. It’s disappointing, especially after the film made a point to try and give these characters more than just a single purpose.

Some Kind Of Hate deserves more praise than complaint, however. The acting is largely well done, and the script by Mortimer and DeLeeuw definitely attempt to give the characters more dimension than what you’d normally expect from a film like this. However, the lack of attention to certain subplots, the inconsistencies with it’s own rules, and just the general reliance on a specific type of kill holds Some Kind Of Hate back from being a truly great indie gem. It’s not a bad movie by any means, and is unique in its approach. That alone warrants a viewing. Whether the film’s pitfalls (and subject matter) prevent it from being a repeatable viewing is up to the viewer.

Home Video

‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

Published

on

Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

Continue Reading