Three out of
Five stars
Running time:
91 mins
Enjoyable teen horror with a terrific cast, a decent script and a suitably high shock-and-gore factor, though it's not quite as scary as it should have been.
What's it all about?
Directed by Jon Wright, Tormented stars newcomer Tuppence Middleton as gorgeous head girl Justine, who receives a long-awaited invitation to join the school in crowd when school heartthrob Alexis (Dimitri Leonidas) asks her out. However, no sooner has Justine joined their inner circle - including alpha male Bradley (Alex Pettyfer) and Queen Bitches Tasha and Kally (April Pearson and Larissa Wilson) - than they start receiving mysterious death threats and it isn't long before someone or something starts killing them off in amusingly violent and gory ways.
Alexis and Justine soon discover that the death threats are coming from the phone of Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean), an asthmatic, overweight student who had recently committed suicide due to relentless bullying by the in crowd. But will anyone believe that the zombie-ghost of Darren Mullet is seeking bloody revenge?
The Good
Wright has assembled a talented, fresh-faced cast that includes teen heartthrobs (Pettyfer), ex-Grange Hill actors (Leonidas), Skins alumni (Pearson and Wilson), gorgeous up-and-coming actresses (Georgia King as Sophie) and attractive newcomers (Middleton, Tom Hopper as Marcus) alike. Also, in what seems like a brilliantly inspired, zeitgeist-skewering joke, Calvin Dean bears an amusing resemblance to a zombified James Corden.
The sharply-observed script is excellent, with believable teen dialogue, strong characters and several good gags. The film also features terrific special effects and gets the tone exactly right, balancing effectively gruesome gore with a dark strain of tongue-in-cheek humour.
The Bad
Tormented clearly wants to be a UK version of Scream, though it isn't quite scary enough, despite some effectively staged death scenes. It's a slight problem, for example, that the scariest moment in the film turns out to be a cruel prank.
Worth seeing?
Tormented isn't perfect, but it's still a lot of fun, thanks to a terrific cast, a sharply written script and some inventively staged, suitably gory death scenes. Worth seeing.