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Overall Rating : 6.5/10
Directed By : Jeremy Haft
Jenna Dewan (Take the Lead)
Matthew Marsden
Chad Faust (Saved!)
Gil Hacohen
Katie Stuart (The Girl Next Door)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Apr. 4, 2006
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| PLOT Tamara is not the most popular girl in school. Mousy and quiet she is picked on constantly. When her classmates play a practical joke that goes awry and results in her death, the once homely teenager comes back from the dead as a sexy seductress to exact revenge on her killers… one by torturous one. |
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| THE REVIEW CONTAINS MANY SPOILERS - PROCEED WITH CAUTION!! TAMARA tells the story of Tamara Riley. Tamara is your average geek that gets tormented day in and day out by her peers at school, and in life in general, and it seems that life could not get much more difficult. Well one day it does, it happens when an article Tamara has written appears in the school's newspaper. In the article she writes a news story that uncovers the drug problems that many of the student athletes are having with controlled substances, which in turn prompts the coaches to ask for on the spot drug tests. All of this understandably pits many of the students, except a few to be against poor Tamara and the only one who is seemingly by her side is a young teacher, Mr. Natolly whom Tamara has had major crush on for quite some time, and has even tried her hand at witchcraft to win his attention. It is when the bitter students pick up on her little crush that they take advantage of the girl, as they concoct an evil plan to get their revenge. Their plan is this; They call young naive Tamara impersonating her most desired hunky teacher and get Tamara to "meet" him at a local motel alone of course. When Tamara arrives at the motel, she enters to find roses and a note on the bed telling her to get undressed and ready for him, it is then a short time later that it is revealed that this is all a sick joke when one of them comes out of hiding with a video camera that is broadcasting the whole thing to the others in another room. Tamara storms out of the room obviously upset, when she spots one of the girls whom she thought was her friend, a girl named Chloe standing right along with her tormentors. Seeing this spins Tamara into a rage of fury and she attacks Chloe, and to make a long story short, this enter into a tussle in which Tamara bangs her head violently, killing her instantly. After that, we haas the typical scenario in which the teens are scared about what to do, jail time and college(I have never met any teen in my life that would worry about college before anything else, but oh well). The kids decide that the best way to deal with this is to bury Tamara, and predictably, their problems are NOT solved afterwards. It just so happens that the night before, the young geek finally cast a spell that worked...... she wished for newfound life, attractiveness, revenge and the one she loves, well she got all of those excepted for the latter, that would come after a little "work". Tamara is back from the dead and HOTTER than ever and she has the ability to control anyone with her mind with power from beyond the grave, and uses even her enemies as tools to get "her" man. First of all, i'd like to mention what a number of the immature movie fans have been saying about TAMARA before most even see the film. A number of those people are saying that this resembles CARRIE(geek gets tormented, has powers) and PROM NIGHT II/III(hottie comes back from the dead to kill) I do see the similarities, but the way I see it is that with TAMARA, you get all of these films in one shot making it special. Like CARRIE, TAMARA even has the "bad chick who knows it's wrong but goes along with it" in Chloe, that along with the homely geek storyline are the only real distinct similarities, but I feel that TAMARA is sometimes delivered with a far more violent edge than CARRIE ever was. On the surface Tamara may appear to be just another teen Horror in the eyes of the casual watcher, but viewers that actually study them may see that with this film they are striving to make something different. To me I think that the filmmakers were trying to show us what goes on in the mind of someone whom is tortured daily, how they want to just feel loved by someone and what they would do if they were given the chance to punish the ones that treat them badly, whether it be peers or an abusive parent, I really enjoyed the film and really do not care about how much others do or do not, I really enjoyed how it played out. As far as the pace, i'd say the plot was at the pace of Carrie 2 at times, we get to watch Tamara movie right along, shaking her hips and batting the eyelashes, controlling with her mind and good looks. What makes TAMARA unique in it's own way is that most of the violence in the film doesn't happen at her own hand but rather by the ones she literally brainwashes and controls..... The acting? Well that's average, not one of the male jocks that teased Tamara had that appeal that makes you love or hate them, and neither had the "juiced" look so that basically throws the steroid sub-plot out, you just don't care if these guys die or not as for most of the characters. The only one besides Tamara that you get a sense of feeling for is Chloe, which Katie Stuart brings the same innocence that Amy Irving brought to Sue Snell in Carrie, you want her to live all the awhile knowing that she played just about as much of a part in the joke as everyone involved. I think the filmmakers were trying to push the character of Mr. Natolly played Matthew Marsden as a main character right along side of Tamara, but I just didn't feel the connection with him in order to make it believable. As expected the best performance is put in by Jenna Dewan, and this is all deserving as well. For lack of educated words to describe this young lady for now......HOLY CRAP she is absolutely gorgeous! Jenna Dewan just might be one of the sexiest femme fatales ever to grace Horror films and that is the honest truth and without Jenna in this role.... I am afraid TAMARA would not be the film that it is. Miss Dewan started as a backup dancer for the likes of P. Diddy and such and soon you can see her in TAKE THE LEAD with Antonio Banderas, her future is looking good i'd say! |
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| GORE
METER 6/10 For the most part the film's gore is entertaining and effective. We have everything from severed ears and tongues to various impalements. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 TAMARA has an alright blend of techno and hip hop music, as it serves it's purpose of maintaining a "teen" environment. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM TAMARA, to me is a highly entertaining new wave teen thriller. The teen craze that swarmed the late '90s is almost a distant memory now, so it's great to see brand new ones popping up such as this one. Like I said, highly entertaining for the most part, it would have an even higher rating had it, had a different ending. Recommended... This DVD will be released on May 9,2006 |
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