TAMARA

Tamara Riley is the typical marginalized girl, very bright in her studies and secretly in love with her literature teacher, but completely unable to build a social image. An article for the school newspaper, signed by Tamara, denounces the use of narcotics among some members of the school's football team, getting some boys into trouble, who decide to take revenge. The group of boys lures Tamara into a motel room and, with the intention of playing a trick on her, accidentally cause her death, but decide not to report the incident and bury her in the nearby forest. Unfortunately for them, Tamara had been interested in black magic for a long time, so her vengeful spirit will begin to haunt her killers and kill them one by one. You can approach the viewing of "Tamara" with two different approaches: expect to watch an original and spicy teen movie, deceived by the appetizing poster that promises a mix of "sex & gore" or start with your soul at peace, far from any high expectations, and ponder the fact that this film was destined directly for DVD distribution. This second approach is certainly the most suitable, because, seen under this light, "Tamara" cannot be anything other than a mediocre product of entertainment without too many frills. Nothing exceptional: no originality, since the feature in question starts as a teen comedy, quickly turns into a clone of "Carrie" and then definitely veers into the territories of pure horror, which for some elements may remind the bad "Urban Legend 3: Bloody Mary". No erotic concessions, despite the fact that the protagonist is a sexy bombshell who for three-quarters of the film appears dressed in very tight-fitting red "strizzatette" dresses. None of that, except for some abrupt turns towards splatter that, although dosed drop by drop, at some moments allow themselves some really crude exploits (note the scene of self-mutilation with the cutter). Having said all this, we are left with a feature film that cannot certainly be considered a successful work, but that all in all can be watched without ever boring or irritating, since an attempt is made to avoid easy stereotypes, rather, playing with them, reversing every possible character nuance attributable to each prototypical character present in the film: the loser ridiculed by everyone, immediately recognizable as the protagonist, turns into a lethal and attractive villain; the doped boys, members of the football team, abandon themselves to homosexual effusions; the cheerleader with a perfect physique, turns out to be affected by bulimia at its last stage that forces her to devour herself. In short, although the screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination) has crafted a teen movie in full (therefore for teenagers) and filled it with banal dialogues, he at least has taken the trouble to build minimally interesting characters. The direction of Jeremy Haft is uninspired and too television-like, while the cast is composed of a couple of interesting faces, including the beautiful protagonist Jenna Dewan ("Step Up"; "The Grudge 2") and the evil Kisha, played by Melissa Elias (the TV series "Falcon Beach"); and a group of second-rate actors, among whom you can recognize the expressionless face of Matthew Mardsen ("Anaconda 2", "Dead or Alive") who plays the professor Natolly. In short, "Tamara" is a mediocre film that definitely reminds the horror productions of the early 1990s, suitable for spending a couple of hours of carefree fun but definitely not memorable.