Tamara Movie Trailer. Fusing performance-enhancing steroids to gain a competitive athletic advantage is bad, then why is using performance-enhancing black magic to make your married.
Don’t go looking for answers in Tamara, Jeremy Haft’s horror film about a living dead girl intent on punishing the teenage tormentors who accidentally killed her. Infatuated with dreamy Mr. Natolly (Matthew Marsden), incessantly mocked by both jocks and cliquish popular girls, and saddled with a drunken father (Chris Sigurdson) who’s too grabby for his own good, dowdy nerd (and practicing witch) Tamara (Jenna Dewan) finds fatal trouble when she exposes a steroid scandal in the school newspaper.
To exact revenge for being outed as illegal substance abusers, two moronic ‘roid-ragers concoct a pathetic plot to embarrass Tamara in front of a few random classmates, but when things go awry and Tamara winds up dead, the group of stereotypical types—also including the bumbling AV Club loser (“That is one quality libation!” he geekily quips after enjoying a liquor shot), the laid-back L.A. transfer student, the bulimic beauty, and the kind-hearted do-gooder—decide to cover-up the incident by burying her out in the woods.
Everyone is shocked when Tamara reappears in class the following day as a stunning sexpot, but alas, her subsequent efforts to kill those involved in her demise plays out with a familiar B-grade mix of excessive gore and insufficient imaginativeness. A bustier cross between Carrie and Freddy Krueger, Tamara drives her victims to self-mutilation and, in the case of her two date rape-loving macho enemies (who are also presumably homophobic), to gay sex, all while Haft douses his film in third-rate hip-hop and sub-Tool metal and screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination) has Mr. Natolly expound on “the theme of duality” because, you know, Tamara is alternately a shy girl and a murderous vixen.
The Sexiest Living Dead Girl You’ll See
What helps set TAMARA apart… is the fact that its antiheroine doesn’t come back as a simple killing machine. It will, of course, be difficult for many seasoned horror fans to look at the basics of TAMARA and not think of CARRIE.
After all, it’s a high-school horror movie named after a central female character who is put-upon by her classmates until she eventually wreaks gruesome revenge upon them. But TAMARA wrings enough changes on the formula, in terms of both story and character, to establish its own identity and emerge as a satisfying youth shocker. Not the least of the differences is that, as opposed to the largely withdrawn and dressed-down Carrie White, Tamara (Jenna Dewan) metes out her payback after coming back from the grave as the sexiest living dead girl you’ll see this year..
But that’s getting ahead of myself. Though she certainly fits the bill as a red-hot, seductive vixen of vengeance, the stunning Dewan is also convincing as the Tamara we meet in the earlier scenes, who is clearly good-looking but also palpably insecure, and harbors a secret crush on teacher Mr. Natolly (Matthew Marsden).
When she misinterprets his attempts to reach out to her as a reciprocation of her affections, her feelings become known to a clique of jocks who are already upset with Tamara for writing a school-newspaper exposé of steroid use among their ranks. They use the knowledge to set her up for a motel-room humiliation and, for good measure, arrange for a couple of the only students sympathetic to Tamara to witness it. In time-honored genre tradition, the prank goes horribly awry and results in Tamara’s death—but that only sets the stage for her to return, thanks to her side hobby of dabbling in witchcraft.
What helps set TAMARA apart from its teen-horror/revenge brethren is the fact that its antiheroine doesn’t come back as a simple killing machine. She returns to school all smiles and looking striking, and the movie builds a nice tension out of the fact that no one but the small band of perpetrators knows that she’s supposed to be dead. Nor does Tamara predictably use her newfound hottitude to simply seduce her enemies to their deaths.
Along with her sexier look and demeanor, she has also been empowered with the supernatural ability to influence people’s actions, and she begins to turn her betrayers against each other and, in the most memorable grisly setpiece, themselves. At the same time, she embarks on a newly emboldened quest for Mr. Natolly’s attentions, which means that his wife Sheila (Claudette Mink) becomes another candidate for Tamara’s hit list.
While continuing the penchant for outré death sequences he first explored in his original script for FINAL DESTINATION, screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick aims to ground the story in emotion, and he and director Jeremy Haft are mostly successful in pulling it off. Neither the dialogue nor the performances condescend to the teenage characters, and the capable young cast is highlighted by Dewan, who makes Tamara as convincingly threatening as she is alluring, while maintaining an undercurrent of sympathy. In fact, Tamara’s approach of getting revenge long-distance becomes a liability in the second half, as she’s offscreen for too-long periods at a time. Once she takes center stage again, there’s also one of those unfortunate sequences, familiar from HALLOWEEN II and so many others, that takes place in a hospital where the staff all make themselves scarce just in time for the action to heat up.
TAMARA rallies in its concluding scenes, though, with an ending that brings both the narrative and emotional concerns full circle, and points up the fact that where its antiheroine is concerned, the killings are really a secondary issue. While those scenes are pulled off with flair (and, refreshingly, without CGI; Doug Morrow’s makeup FX are good and squirm-inducing), the movie doesn’t lose sight of the fact that you’re supposed to feel for Tamara even as she’s indulging in the nastiest of deeds. And in that, at least, the film does indeed warrant the CARRIE comparisons. Reviewed by MICHAEL GINGOLD
A motel room, videotape the whole thing
High school sucks, and then some kids trick you into undressing in a motel room, videotape the whole thing, and before you know it, you’ve banged your head on the edge of a table during a struggle and died. Luckily for you, you happen to be an amateur witch, and soon you’ve clawed your way out of your makeshift grave (those kids having buried you in order to hide their crimes, the bastards), and now that you’ve magically made yourself super hot, you set out to torment the kids that killed you.
And oh yeah, you take time out to seduce that English teacher you’ve been having wet dreams about. So goes the storyline of “Tamara”, the latest teen horror movie from director Jeremy Haft and screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick.
“Tamara” stars newcomer Jenna Dewan, in what should be a star making role, as Tamara (pronounced “tam-ma-rah”) Riley, a mousy high school girl in love with her English teacher (Matthew Marsden) and tormented by the other kids because, as they like to remind her, she’s a “loooooser”. After Tamara’s article on steroid use in school gets the top jock kicked off the football team, the jock and his buddies plot a little revenge that involves the scenario mentioned above. But since you can’t keep a bad witch down, Tamara returns from the grave, all slutted up and determined to exact bloody revenge and finally nail that English teacher. Oh, to be young and in high school again…
As teen horror movies go, “Tamara” is better than your average entry, but still nowhere near as good as it could, or should have been given the wicked premise. Perhaps the reason the film is better than it has any right to be is the wildly sexed up performance from its leading lady. The deliciously evil Jenna Dewan is clearly the star of the show, and seems to be having a ball playing a bad witch to the hilt. If her starring turn in “Tamara” doesn’t translate into mainstream work, Dewan will at least have decades of steady work in B-horror movies to fall back on.
The best part of “Tamara” is the 30 or so minutes after Tamara’s return from the grave, as she sets out to emotionally torment her killers as much as possible before taking things further. Alas, once Tamara turns two of her would-be victims gay, the film sinks like a rock. It’s open to debate what is to blame — a script that fails to recognize its own potential, or the pressures of a low-budget production demanding concessions from the filmmakers. Despite the noticeable low budget, “Tamara” has some good gore, with Haft and company going for shock value. There’s some good stuff here, with a lot of excellent, grimace-inducing practical effects interspersed with judicious uses of unspectacular CGI.
Of the rest of the cast, Katie Stuart has the unenviable task of playing the Fair Hair Lead, a character that always seems to be written as dull and uninteresting as possible, and is usually attributed with either psychic abilities or a traumatic background. Shockingly, Stuart’s Chloe has neither characteristics, but nevertheless ends up being just as generic as all the Fair Hair Leads that has come before her. As the lust of Tamara’s life, Matthew Marsden is appropriately handsome and adult, although the character really doesn’t seem to have much to do until the very end. In fact, “Tamara” probably makes the wrong choice by not stacking the cast with disposal kill material, resulting in one spectacular death early on, and not-so-much thereafter.
Which leads to this nitpick, involving the level of malice that Tamara inflicts on her victims. In particular Tamara’s first victim, an AV geek who was at the motel when Tamara was killed, although the poor guy just thought he was going to a party, and might be the least complicit of everyone there. Surely just being present doesn’t translate into the horrible ordeal Tamara puts him through. On the other hand, what does the jock that set the whole thing up and his buddy in crime get? One night in bed — with each other. Way to go, Tamara. You viciously slaughter the most innocent kid in the bunch, but “punish” the two guiltiest ones by getting them laid.
Genre fans will also be disappointed to learn that the film is missing one crucial element — nudity. As in, there’s none to be found, not even from a peripheral character, something that even the worst teen horror movies get right. And in a movie where the lead walks around in skin-tight skirts and tops, it’s unforgivable that we never see anything beyond some naked thighs. Which, when you boil it down, is what’s most wrong about “Tamara” — it’s all tease and no follow-through. It keeps telling you that it’s going to be hardcore, but never manages to rise above pedestrian. Where’s the courage? The will to just go for broke?
But maybe I’m being too overly negative, because there’s a lot to like about “Tamara”, in particular (and this should come as no surprise) the film’s star, who sizzles in just about every scene she’s in. Credit goes to Haft for casting Dewan, even if the director fails to fully realize his film’s potential. In braver hands, “Tamara” could have been the next “May”, instead of just a slightly above average teen horror film, one of many in a field already too congested with lousy entries.
Tamara (2006)
Directed by: Jeremy Haft
Starring: Jenna Dewan, Matthew Marsden, Chad Faust, Gil Hacohen, Melissa Elias, Katie Stuart, Claudette Mink, Sarah Blondin, Magally Zelaya, Ernesto Griffith, Brian Davisson
Screenplay by: Jeffrey Reddick
Production Design by: Gordon Wilding
Cinematography by: Scott Kevan
Film Editing by: Eric Strand
Costume Design by: Linda Madden
Set Decoration by: Shawna Balas
Music by: Mike Suby
MPAA Rating: R for sequences of strong bloody violence, language, sexuality and teen drinking.
Distributed by: City Lights Pictures
Release Date: February 3, 2006
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