Movies
[Review] ‘Some Kind Of Hate” Burrows Under Your Skin To Stay
Some Kind Of Hate shows us the ugly, uncompromising side of teenage reality. During our formative high school years, most people are the worst version of themselves, and Director Adam Egypt Mortimer knows it. His script reduces teenage bullying into a primitive, purely psychological game of torment and removes any social media flavor to present an unflinching new take on the trope of the social outcast out for revenge.
In lingering on the ramifications of bullying, and touching on those who “move on” from it, Some Kind Of Hate will have you cringing by the inciting incident. The editing ensures that when the protagonist, Lincoln ( a moody and effective Ronen Rubinstein) is smacked around, you feel the jarring loss of control yourself. When he’s reprimanded for lashing out, and sent to a juvenile rehabilitation camp in the middle of nowhere, the script makes you feel his lust to be anywhere else.
It’s inside this chakra focused new age healing commune, that we’re introduced to our cast of expendable teens. Right away you’ll feel just how different Some Kind Of Hate is from other slashers. Each of these characters is deplorable in their own regard. It’s a notable departure from most slashers, because this isn’t about an assortment of fun-loving teens unleashing evil. In fact it’s quite the opposite. It’s about the evil you find in yourself when you’re lost in a moment of transition.
In the dregs of this commune, Lincoln feels lost. He’s tormented by a group of listless assholes and he inevitably becomes consumed with rage. In his moment of ultimate vulnerability a real flesh and blood hot girl, Kaitlin (Super lovable, and ultimately desirable grace Phipps) , and a vengeful self-destructive spirit girl, Moira (a fearless Sierra McCormick), befriend him. The horror really begins to spin out of control as both of these relationships develop.
Throughout the runtime the most inviting character on the screen is the blood-drenched Moira, but within that Mortimer presents the arid desert as a character unto itself. The script pushes the on screen torment in a way that will have you considering your own past sins, and forces you to realize you can’t really escape who you once were.
The moodiness of the script and visuals is sometimes undercut by a jarring and inconsistent soundtrack, which is at times pounding, and at others perfectly on point. But there is such a sliding scale that it’s impossible to anticipate what sort of song will carry the transition into the next scene. It’s a missed opportunity, but ultimately not one that detracts too much from the experience.
The themes are heavy, the visual are beautiful, and the trope reversals are constant. Some Kind of Hate ultimately becomes better than the revenge stories that inspired it. Because it understands that amidst psychological torment there are real physical consequences that are under the surface. It isn’t afraid to get under your skin, and linger there because it wants to drive you into feeling uncomfortable.
And when it really excels, it shows the complete loss of control wrought by bullying and torment. Things escalate all too easily, and Mortimer’s script shows an intimate understanding of the dangers of real-world bullying. Moreover, it provides a sound solution and shows that the cycle of violence only ends when someone decides to walk away.
It essentially takes everything you thought you knew about the revenge sub-genre and offers constant reversals among a sea of social commentary. It’s the type of thing Wes Craven would ultimately be proud of because watching Moira’s reign of terror should be mandatory in any middle school. This is a movie that will teach you about real-world horror. It preaches the pitfalls and horrors of real violence, and the perfectly embodies the consequences of psychological violence.
Some Kind of Hate is a bold and brutal film that will challenge your conception of yourself. It’ll bring you back to the worst parts of your teenage years and force you to reexamine the roles you played in the arena of public school bullying. It’s unflinching, chilling, and ultimately required viewing. This isn’t your standard empty minded slasher flick; this is a challenging deconstruction of real world issues with an incredible horror twist. It’ll burrow into your skin, and refuse to leave.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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