In a film chock-filled with clichés, the most audacious and laughable is the ‘ugly’ high school student who is actually incredibly, jaw-droppingly hot. This is such an unbelievable and overused stereotype even in the teen comedy genre it originates from, that its use in a film almost renders that film instantly unwatchable. Then the other walking clichés are added into the mix; the bullying meathead jocks, the socially awkward but morally decent nerd, the beautiful but bitchy cheerleader. It’s a wonder that there is anything positive to say about this film at all but somehow it almost gets away with these unforgivably lazy pieces of writing masquerading as characters in a movie.

This is definitely not due to the acting, most of the performances here are bad. Granted, the actors do not have much to work with but still the general quality of the acting is, at points, almost painful. The actors playing the two jock characters are particularly bad but to make up for this Matthew Marsden does a good job as the object of Tamara’s affections. Tamara herself (Jenna Dewan) is also pretty good, especially when the two distinctly different sides of the character are considered. She also looks ridiculously good in a mini-skirt.

The story itself has distinct shades of Carrie and, to a lesser extent, The Craft but generally has a fairly original direction. Tamara exacts her revenge by controlling the minds of her enemies rather than by simply going after them with an axe (as is suggested by some of the movie’s promotional material). This leads to some interesting deaths which are all quite varied and effective in their ability to make you squirm. Someone stabbing themselves in the eye with a scalpel is always going to get a reaction while the bulimc girl forced to chew off her own fingertips is memorably wince-inducing too. The physical gore effects are all very good and are not over-used. The make-up effects on the decayed zombie version of Tamara are a particular stand-out. There are a few smaller CGI elements which don’t work and should have just been left out as they only serve to cheapen the look of a film that for the greater part makes the most of its modest budget.

The greatest problem with this film is that it doesn’t fulfil its potential. There are some very nice ideas and set-ups present here but the script just doesn’t deliver the goods and it could definitely have done with at least another couple of re-writes. The direction is also mundane and though competent enough never makes the most of the material. A good example of this problem is the moment when the group of kids who only the previous night accidentally killed and buried Tamara come face to face with her the following morning. They are all looking nervously at her empty desk and generally feeling a bit guilty about it all when in strolls the dead girl herself looking like Julia Roberts’ sexier sister with a sexuality and confidence that is more predatory than a hungry velociraptor. This could have been a brilliantly tense and freaky sequence but the direction really drops the ball and robs it of much of its impact. A real shame.

Whilst not entirely unlikeable this film is too under-developed to really make much of an impression. It simply makes too many wrong turns to be of any note.

Rating: 6/10

Review By Matt Compton