Tormented

An entirely predictable high school horror in which a bullied student commits suicide and then comes back from the dead as a malevolent zombie, taking revenge on everyone who wronged him. The only difference with this production is that it's British-flavoured, but in every other respect it's the kind of movie you've seen a hundred times before.

The first thing that struck me as I watched this was the distinct lack of sympathetic characters. The high school students are a group of vicious and narcissistic bullies who you'll be waiting to get bumped off – even Alex Pettyfer, playing against type as a bad guy for once. Tuppence Middleton is, I suppose, the protagonist and somebody you're supposed to root for, but I found her as irritating as the rest. Vaguely interesting characters, like James Floyd's Nasser, are kept to the sidelines. The antagonist isn't very pleasant either. Watching this becomes a bit of a depressing experience, one in which you're just waiting for the next gore scene.

And gory it is. The film-makers adopt the approach of making every death as inventive as possible, and there are some truly nasty moments played out for their absurd, comedic value as well as the bloodshed. The bit involving a guillotine is particularly outrageous and really works, and it's moments like this that stop TORMENTED from being a dog in the same way that non-starting hoodie horror F was a dog. In fact, it's fairly well made throughout, with well-shot direction and a perfectly-timed pacing. Perhaps not a film you'd ever want to watch again, but it does the business for a one-time viewing.

'TORMENTED': Three Stars (Out of Five)

This BBC Films production is another tormented high school student revenge tale. It's directed by Jon Wright, written by newcomer Stephen Prentice and filled with a cast of relatively unknowns (although they could be bigger stars in the UK). A young actress by the name of Tuppence Middleton is memorable and strikingly attractive in the lead and the rest of the cast is adequate and fittingly cast. The story is routine and has been done many times before but it is filled with witty British dialog (as well as sometimes confusing slang). The directing is impressive for this type of low budget genre film and the soundtrack is very effective. All in all it's a pretty well made comedic slasher film.

As the film opens a bullied fat asthma stricken outcast named Darren Mullet (played by Calvin Dean) has just committed suicide. Class favorite Justine (Middleton) speaks at his funeral although she doesn't remember who he was. She later learns that the boy had a crush on her. The popular clique that made fun of Darren now accepts Justine into their group, with some resentment from the girls, and one of the boys (played by Dimitri Leonidas) has a romantic interest in Justine. As Justine falls in love with her new found popularity, and starts to forget her old friends, her new friends start dieing one by one. It appears as though Darren has risen from the dead and is exacting his revenge.

The film is touching and sad at times but it is a little heavy handed as well. Although I felt sorry for Darren and the way he was treated I had trouble routing for him as he viciously killed his tormentors. The death scenes are creative and at times humorous though and as far as low budget slasher films go this one is pretty well put together. It's got that dry British humor that's a riot at times (in this film) and the characters are all at least somewhat interesting. If you're a fan of the genre this is one worth checking out.

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Tormented is directed by Jon Wright and written by Stephen Prentice. It stars Alex Pettyfer, Sophie Wu, April Pearson, Calvin Dean, Dimitri Leonidas and Tuppence Middleton. Music is by Paul Hartnoll and cinematography by Trevor Forrest.

A bullied teenager at Fairview High School takes his own life but appears to have come back from the dead to take revenge on his classmates.

Gruesome, fun and flavoured by pinches of satire, Tormented is a far better film than the internet ratings suggest. The serious subject of bullying makes its point, particularly late in the proceedings, but the makers are more interested in capturing the spirit of the techno teen times while focusing on the antagonists in their natural habitat. They are a dislikable bunch, not only in how they treat those they view as inferior to themselves, but also to each other. Even the central "couple" at the core of the plotting, the closest the film has to someone for us to side with as they strive to survive, come with bile baggage that reveals itself as we hurtle towards a deliciously spiky finale. There is much self-absorption and crudeness, sexulisation and ignorance, it's a bit of a kicker is this, but we are firmly on the side of the recently departed Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean). The cast performances are a mixed bunch, but this hardly hurts the picture, while serious gore hounds will lament the lack of close ups for the "killer" scenes. But this is more than a generic slasher, it has psychological smarts and nifty observations on modern technology's usage for cruel intimidation. It also knows how to have a good time, and you should too. 7/10

Weak script and storyline, not much to keep you hooked, easy to follow. A few creeps and laughs. I have no idea what type of audience this is for...maybe for guys who have a kink for school uniforms because they were the most unconvincing bunch of school-kids ever, I hate modified uniforms made to look like they were from a porn movie or St Trinians. And as far as I know thigh high socks,fashion tights, mini skirts and huge earrings are banned from schools...pi-sh, plus the fact they are too old. And probably the first rule when making any sort of film is character sympathy...I didn't warm to any of the characters, apart from Justine(poor girl) so who cares if anything happens to them?

My friend and I really wanted to see this film but sadly it wasn't showing at our local cinema so we got a train to Milton Keynes just to see it and I have to say it didn't disappoint, I was having second thoughts about this film when we were on our way because the TV adverts for this film makes it look like a boring teenage slasher, it is a teenage slasher but not boring. Its funny, pretty gory, and sexy! But everyones different with their films. I enjoyed the storyline as I didn't expect what was going to happen. Great choice of cast.. all very talented and I will definitely be buying it when its comes out on DVD.

See it if you liked Skins, Friday the 13th and Scream.