
Tamara (played by the very hot Jenna Dewan) is the school loser and also writes for the school newspaper. She is also in love with one of her teachers, Mr. Riley. In her school newspaper she exposes the fact that the only reason the team is winning is because of performance enhancing drugs. This pisses off two jocks, Shawn and Patrick real bad and one of them even let’s her know that she’s going down. Shawn’s girlfriend, Kisha who is also upset with Tamara’s performing decides she’s going to get involved in the high school drama. She spies on Tamara and catches her trying to kiss her Teacher Mr. Natolli. This is the ammunition these high school bullies need to play a cruel trick on Tamara.
Before the cruel prank, we get to witness a little bit of Tamara’s home life where she lives in a messy house with a verbally abusive and alcoholic father. Also Tamara does witchcraft in her spare time and she doesn’t seem to be too good at it. That’s at least what it seems like at the beginning.
She get’s a call from Shawn who is a master at mimicking Mr Riley. She believes she is getting a phone call from the teacher she is in love with. Shawn in his Mr. Riley voice tells her “I love you” and to meet him at a hotel. Tamara believes every word and gets done up and heads over to the hotel
Shawn used some people in the process to help his plan out. He enlisted a school nerd, Roger to get some A.V equipment to bring to the hotel. His plan is to have everyone watch as Tamara gets this mean joke played on her. One group is in one hotel with a television and in the other hotel is Sean hiding in the bathroom ready to jump out and make a fool out of Tamara.Some people in the room don’t even know what their watching on screen because how dark it is in the other hotel room. They think they were just invited to a small party in a hotel. One of the girls in the room is Chloe, the only girl who ever sticks up for Tamara. The room is dark so no one sees the girl in her undies is Tamara until Sean comes out with a camera and says about 10 hilariously and ridiculously rude things to her like “You look like a cheap and ugly whore”. I swear to god this bad writing is delivered marvelously by actor Bryan Clark and I also want to note that he is arguably one of the biggest pricks in horror film history. Anyone who likes this dude as a character should be shot in the pecker. I like the fact that the writer Jeffrey Reddick wrote a character so remorseless, crude and idiotic. I mean the character Sean is a steroid pumping jock that bullies a quiet girl. I couldn’t wait to see him get killed.
When Tamara runs out of the hotel she notices Chloe standing outside the other hotel door and she goes ballistic on everyone. During this mayhem she smacks her head off the corner of a table and she tragically dies. Right away no one including the formely not guilty people in the room also don’t want to contact the police because of things like scholarships or police finding skin underneath her nails. Tamara was scratching away at a few of them. They all decide to bury her at a local graveyard and the only one who still questions the ordeal is Chloe. They bury her and the next day Tamara shows up at school more hot than ever and we see the cast disappear slowly. The movie takes it time with the characters. Eugene is the suicidal nerd, Shawn is again the biggest prick of all time and his buddy is the biggest asshole and to put it lightly those two things may connect later under the spell of the Witch Tamara. Chloe and her boyfriend Jesse are the two characters I didn’t think deserved to die but they were guilty for not going to the authorities. Chloe basically got voted 5 to 1 and she was the one that wanted to contact the pigs. Shawn also said that he would blackmail her and tell the cops it was all her idea.
Tamara seemed to come back for another reason and that’s for the love of her teacher and she’ll be damned if she don’t get it. Earlier before her demise she performed some witchcraft that makes Mr.Natolly a very instrumental part of this twisted story. She fucks with his wife and guidance counselor Alison Natolly by telling Alison she’ll never have kids and therefore Mr. Natolly will never truly love her. They obviously were trying to conceive a child.
I don’t want to give up much more but this movie delivers and although I think it has similarities to “Carrie” and the secret bond between friends storyline like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” this movie still is killer. The gore isn’t the most extreme but its effective and creative at times. You can really tell this came from the mind that created “Final Destination”. Not that “Final Destination” is the classic of all horror cinema but I will go ahead and admit that I think this film is superior to all of the films in the Final Destination series. Some of the the dialogue is idiotic but I imagine that a lot of high school people talk like this or at least they do in any high school set movie involving superficial cheerleaders and homoerotic football players. It’s an awesome revenge/slasher with much more than a dash of witchcraft. If you want a brainless movie that knocks off teenagers that deserve to die than rent this at your local rental store. The movie is simple and the acting isn’t bad for the material the young actors are given. Matthew Marsden played a very honorable teacher and was always there for Tamara. The ending was okay but could have been better but I couldn’t of had a better time no matter what else they put on screen. For those into gore, you get some chewed glass, eye-stabs, finger chewing, guy on guy sex spells (not gory but gross) and a beautiful but decrepit Tamara. Lionsgate put a solid direct to video horror film out and that’s the biggest surprise. Jenna Dewan did an solid job as the starring character Tamara and she was easy on the eyes. I hope to see here in more genre movies, television or in Playboy if that’s what she wishes. She’s smoking and her beauty enhanced this fun movie. Don’t expect many scares. Just sit back and enjoy the decent gore, the high school melodrama and the hot chicks on screen.
Rating - ***
-Russ Rutter