Every now and then, a film comes around that makes a big impact on you. For me, “A Girl Like Her” is one of of those films.

The movie premieres in theatres Friday, March 27. While it’s fictional, the situation could not be more real, as it chronicles the tragic effects of bullying.

The film was set up like a documentary, with a backdrop of a top high school that is seemingly perfect–that is until word broke of sophomore Jessica Burns (Lexi Ainsworth) overdosing on oxycodone in a suicide attempt due to harassment by a popular girl and former best friend Avery Keller (Hunter King).

Throughout the movie, Jessica remains critical in a coma while the documentarists follow the lives of the parents, best friend, Brian Slater (Jimmy Bennett), and possibly, most interestingly, the bully, Avery Keller. Brian had been discreetly documenting Avery’s intense bullying of Jessica and clips of it are exposed throughout the movie.

Fair warning, this is a heavy and difficult film to watch. My parents and I were in complete tears for the first 15 minutes and couldn’t pull ourselves together for the entire hour and a half.

That being said, everyone should pull out a box of tissues, cling on to someone they love, and watch it. The actors could not have been cast more perfectly and their pain seemed hauntingly genuine. It was so well-filmed and produced that I often struggled to remind myself that it wasn’t a true documentary.

While this particular case was fictional, the film highlights some of the darkest true aspects of high school. All of us have been in the bullying world whether we were the victim, the bystander or even the bully. But after watching this, maybe we all truly understand the horror words can cause and the detrimental effects of internal hurt.