The Hater (Polish: Sala samobójców. Hejter) is a 2020 Polish social thriller film directed by Jan Komasa and written by Mateusz Pacewicz.
Tomasz is a young man from the countryside who has arrived in Warsaw to study law on a prestigious university, helped in this by the wealthy Krasucki family who used to spend summer vacation on his father's farm. When he is expelled for plagiarism, he at first fails to tell them, afraid of losing their support and the attention of their daughter Gabi, who he secretly loves. Having apparently blown his chance for improving his social standing by education, he finds a job in a public relations company that turns out to be a troll farm.
When the secret gets out — and the truth causes severe displasure of the Krasuckis, including Gabi, who stops talking to him — his motivation quickly changes from simple need for money, to obsession and revenge. Seeing as the Krasuckis are ardent supporters of Paweł Rudnicki — a young, liberal candidate in Warsaw's mayoral elections — he takes on the job of ruining Rudnicki's campaign. For this purpose, he uses his connection to Krasuckis to find his way into Rudnicki's election campaign staff.
The film is a loose sequel to Suicide Room, sharing the character of Dominik's mother who in the meantime has become the boss of the public relations company Tomasz joins.
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
- The Ace: Gabi's older sister, Natalia. She finished law on Oxford and is clearly held by the Rudnickis as all they hoped a daughter of theirs to become. In contrast, Gabi failed to secure a spot on a Western university and the fact that she might have to settle for a top-rating Polish one — which for Tomasz is a pinnacle of his hopes — is a failure to them.
- Ambiguously Bi: Tomasz shows a remarkable flexibility in his ability to seduce a man or a woman as his plans require. It's not made clear in the movie if he actually is bisexual or just good at faking it.
- Ambiguously Evil: Tomasz, in the beginning. We first see him caught red-handed over a plagiarised essay, and snooping on a conversation of his benefactors. In both cases we are provided excuses for him to feel justified to do so, so it's not clear whether he saw himself forced by circumstances, or if his morality was always that flexible. It's only later he jumps off the slippery slope.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Krasuckis have a huuuge streak of this. When they think Tomasz does not hear them, they're openly contemptuous of him and his background, to the point of immediately assuming he's literally hereditarily inclined towards immorality once the big secret spills out.
- Big Book of War: Tomasz's boss gives him an audiobook version of The Art Of War. The chapter on spies plays as he manipulates the rightie wacko to become his Unwitting Pawn. Apparently it also contains The Thirty-Six Stratagems, as Stratagems #29 and #31 are also brought up.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: The Krasuckis, a classy, wealthy, liberal family who wholeheartedly supports left-liberal politicians and causes, passes time in operas, and hires classical musicians to play on family events.
- Break the Haughty: Gabi's parents are dicks, with their snobbishness towards Tomasz and anyone they regard as "less than" them. However, they are not bad people, are often shown to be put in an unflattering light due to Tomasz's Unreliable Narrator status, and they are utterly broken by their daughter Natalia's brutal murder.
- Comically Small Demand: Just before Tomasz can set the final stage of his plan into motion, of which the rightie wacko is a crucial element, he suddenly objects to do his part for free and Tomasz is forced to negotiate. They settle for 3500 EUR. Played for Drama: it shows how desperate they both are, the wacko for whom this is enough to feel he has enough to leave to his family, and Tomasz, who has to come up with a whole new gambit to even have that much to spare.
- Depraved Bisexual: Although the extent to which he feels any genuine attraction to Pawel is highly debatable, Tomasz fits this to a T: he's extremely manipulative, is given a heavy dose of Even the Guys Want Him, uses people for his own gain, and is driven crazy (or crazier) by the rejection of a girl.
- Dinner with the Boss: Tomasz is not above it. In fact, he does it twice: first time with Rudnicki, to set up his Honey Trap, and second with his own boss (with a side order of Sleeping with the Boss) to secure funding for his operation against Rudnicki. The bonus is that he learns of potential blackmail material against her.
- Down on the Farm: Tomasz comes from one. It ain't lucky: the agro-tourism business flunked since a new industrial chicken farm opened up in the area, and his father's back to the old poverty.
- Driven to Villainy: The whole story is about Tomasz, who starts out as a rather morally-grey but limitedly harmful fellow, being driven deep into outright villainy by lack of opportunities and the feeling of being looked down on by everyone due to his lower-class background.
- Extreme Graphical Representation: Downplayed, since it's an MMO, but it appears to have rather more and better features than you'd expect.
- False Flag Operation: Tomasz creates the appearance of a hidden radical group with a secret "inner circle" in order to ensnare Stefan, a troubled young man with a fascination for guns, into a plot to attack a popular politician.
- Faux Yay: Tomasz's ruse against Rudnicki involves an actual same-sex seduction. Apart from his interactions with the politician, he's not signalled in any way to be homo- or bisexual. He even appears to feel awkward about it, in a never-thought-I'm-gonna-do-that kind of way.
- Foil: The rightie wacko is kind of one to Tomasz. Both are lower-class men who feel sidelined by mainstream society and both are drawn to extreme actions by this, but how they do it differs. Tomasz is motivated by cynicism and self-interest and tries to move up in society, while the wacko is a believer who only barely looks after his interest and is otherwise resigned to his lot.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Gabi is foolish, Natalia is responsible. Natalia went to Oxford, is engaged, and is clearly her parents' pride and joy. Gabi is The Unfavorite who dropped out of university due to mental health issues and has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Losing Natalia absolutely devastates them all.
- Gratuitous English: Gabi speaks like this, in contrast to her sister who speaks proper Polish in spite of actually having spent a long time abroad. It loosely serves to reinforce her depiction as a liberal party girl.note
- Honey Trap: Tomasz pulls this by himself against Rudnicki, allowing him to be photographed in a gay bar. He later pretends remorse and remains in Rudnicki's staff, who takes it as a personal failure of self-control.
- Subverted with his manipulation of the rightie wacko. To contact him, he creates a female character in the MMO the guy plays, but then he does not pretend a female identity.
- Hypocrite: The film basically accuses the liberal elites (and by extension all elites) of this. The Krasuckis are all ardent supporters of "fashionable" social rights issues while willing to throw people like Tomasz under the bus. (There's little focus on conservative elites, but Szozda is shown at the end pretending to be shocked, while having had ordered a smear campaign against Rudnicki.)
- Ironic Echo: On several occasions Tomasz repeats words said by other people at an earlier point in the film. The irony lies in that he uses it purely for manipulation without ever believing in any, and a few of these phrases were originally spoken in a very different context: for example, to get into Rudnicki's good graces he uses a phrase from a right-wing rant about "a threat to our civilization", but turns it to mean the far-right rather than the original Muslim scare.
- Karma Houdini: Tomasz. Even though he does screw up a few times in ways which could be career-ending (like trying to pull the wool over his boss Beata's eyes when she's already established to be a sharp operator) or relationship-ending (like lying to family friends about being kicked out of school when they've been supporting him out of sympathy), he manages to outwit everybody and solidify his position within Beata's "PR firm" (which is more like an Internet muckraking and troll factory). It's even implied the woman he earlier alienated, Gabi, will become his girlfriend.
- Late Coming Out: Pawel is implied to be in something of a Transparent Closet with people who know him, but he eventually comes out officially after Tomasz gets him videoed at a gay bar.
- Mean Boss: Everyone in any position in the social media company.
- New Media Are Evil: Tomasz uses phones and hearing devices to bug his friends and opponents, and his job is to work as a professional troll with the ability to drive people to suicide or mass murder.
- Nice Guy: Rudnicki is about never presented as anything but this. In the end, it approaches Too Good for This Sinful Earth territory.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: If one is familiar with contemporary Polish political scene, a variety of elements share uncanny resemblance to real people and situations, but different juuuust enough to come as a wink to the audience rather than simply changing names.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Tomasz is expelled from his law school for plagiarism. This is played in this sort of way: he did it, he could have not to, there are no second chances. He has his excuse of having to work two jobs, which may frame the scene as soft class bias on the part of the university staff, but whether you choose to believe him is up to you.
- Operator from India: When Tomasz is told to hire "the Hindu", he does not understand at first. Turns out the company outsources setting up fake social media accounts to the Third World.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Tomasz has a rather striking one during his negotiations with the wacko. In all of their contacts, he pretended to be a coldly professional anonymous contact of a secret organization, but while trying to persuade him to do his bidding, he slips and lets his own rage at the elites talk through him. Even the wacko is taken aback by the outburst.
- Playing Both Sides: The company Tomasz works in had a contract to shill both sides of the elections. In the follow-up to the culminatory scene, Tomasz literally runs multiple fake accounts pretending to support both Rudnicki and his opponents — on two separate computers, no less — to set up simultaneous events and counter-events in hope of a violent confrontation.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The rightie wacko who Tomasz turns into his agent would very much like to be one. Alas, he lives in Poland, so all he can do is go to a shooting range and post political rants on Youtube. Tomasz lures him by pretending to induct him into a secret right-wing conspiracy.
- Sacrificial Lion: As a subversion to the Red Shirt logic driving a lot of movie massacres, Natalia and Pawel are brutally yet casually executed by Stefan onscreen, as are several other characters that Tomasz met through his volunteer work.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Beata and Pawel are both attracted to Tomasz and either do sleep with or would (had things progressed further) have slept with him.
- Slipping a Mickey: Tomasz uses one to seduce Rudnicki.
- Social Climber: Tomasz hoped to be one.
- The Social Expert: Tomasz grows to be a very dark example, always knowing what to tell people to get in their good graces. In company of right-wingers he's a good ole' boy; towards Rudnicki he's an optimistic young liberal activist of a compatible orientation; towards Krasuckis after his fall from grace, he plays on their sense of moral superiority by acting the prodigal son.
- Something Only They Would Say: The anonymous client who orders a campaign against Rudnicki turns out to have been Szozda, his opponent in the elections. Tomasz is clued in when, in a public debate, he uses a spoonerism that previously appeared in anonymous communication.
- Straight Gay: Rudnicki. Tomasz uses it to rile up homophobes against him.
- The Unfettered: Tomasz, right from the beginning when he plagiarizes an essay and snoops on the Krasuckis to know what they think of him in private, to the very end. The story quite frames this as a survival necessity for lower-class people, and the radicalization as the end result when it is applied in practice.
- Unwitting Pawn: Stefan. He has no idea that the MMO he plays has been used as the vector for a False Flag Operation he will be made the fall guy for.
- Uptown Girl: Gabi is kind of this to Tomasz. At first she appears rather vapid, ditching him once she realizes he's no longer a law student, but on the other hand he also gave the Krasuckis a reason to be wary by lying to them.
- Villain Protagonist: Tomasz. He's possibly a sociopath, and certainly doesn't care what blowback his actions have on other people as long as he comes out ahead.
- Volatile Second Tier Position: At the end, Tomasz blackmails his boss into firing her second-hand man, who he replaces with the implication he'll be the one running the company from the back seat.
- Wealthy Philanthropist: The Krasuckis see themselves this way, even paying Tomasz a monthly stipend. In truth the stipend is barely a pocket money and it's just Condescending Compassion.
