Dir.
Jon Wright, UK, 2009, 91 mins
Cast:
Alex Pettyfer, April Pearson, Dimitri Leonidas, Calvin Dean, Tuppence Middleton, Peter Amory
Review by Michelle Moore
The best teen horrors, such as Friday the 13 th , Halloween and Scream, tend to be American. It has been difficult a British horror, let alone a British teen horror, in the same class – until now that is. Tormented, with its blood spattered violence and touches of comedy to lighten the mood, may well turn out to be the British teen horror that will hit the top spot on your grossomotor.
Tormented opens with a funeral, that of a student no one really seems to remember or have much liked for that matter. But when head school girl Justine (Middleton), the love interest of the deceased, falls in with the In-crowd, the action takes off and things will never be the same.
Written by Stephen Prentice, this film embraces some very real points of everyday school life today. There are the social classes, the In-crowd, the social rejects (in this case the emo Goths) and the victims of bullying, those who get through life trying to be invisible and save themselves from being tortured by others. The plot line revolves around this bullying and the anguish it can cause the person on the receiving end. Here however, not even death can't stop the deceased, Darren Mullett (Dean), from seeking revenge on the In-crowd, who made his life a misery.
Tormented grasps onto the starting points of previous horror flicks from the seventies to the nineties, such as Carrie , Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scream, but develops these themes in innovative new ways.
The way in which the murders are carried out are particularly memorable. Where Freddy gains power from his glove, Jason his Machete and Michael his knife, Darren Mullet has his asthma inhaler as his power source and his physical form as his weapon. The revenge extracted is gory, lifelike and utilising everyday objects in a most cruel, effective and often intriguing manner.
The casting directors have done well in choosing the cast. Like all American horror flicks the film is riddled with gorgeous lads and lasses, most notably Stormrider's Alex Pettyfer as lead bully Bradley. This role is a complete contrast to that in Stormrider and shows he is much more than a pretty face. Here he is nasty, malicious and foul-mouthed as the leader of the In-crowd, really giving the character depth.
Make up for the Peeping Tom zombie ghost, as the Darren Mullett character has been described, isn't as gory as in other flicks' portrayal the Undead. A few bumpy veins and a pale complexion and hey presto you have it.
Director Jon Wright has done an excellent job in all aspects of making Tormented come to life, particularly in his shooting style of Darren himself, as well as the more sexual scenes and the murder angles. Tormented is a great British teen horror movie that even with that little bit of comedy remains gory and very enjoyable. One to be remembered.
|
