Tormented (2009) Reviews

• Bullying and Revenge

  claudio_carvalho2010-02-04

  The head girl Justine (Tuppence Middleton) gives a speech on the funeral of the teenage schoolmate Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean) that has just committed suicide but she does not recall who he was. Then she is invited by Alexis (Dimitri Leonidas) to date him in the celebration party in the house of his friend Bradley (Alex Pettyfer). Sooner Justine discovers that Darren had a crush on her and was bullied by Bradley and his friends including Alexis. When each one of Bradley's friends is found dead, they discover that Darren has returned from beyond to revenge the humiliations he was submitted. "Tormented" is a funny and entertaining teen horror movie. The screenplay is not original, with the usual nerds, bullies and bitches, and will not be nominated to the Oscar, but there are unfair reviews in IMDb. This movie is not amateurish; the young cast is pleasant; the girls are very beautiful and sexy; and the ghost is really weird and creepy. There are sarcastic lines and situations and the deaths are generally violent and gore. Give a chance to this film and you may have a nice surprise. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Distúrbio" ("Havoc")

• Darren couldn't escape even when he was at home. They sent him texts and e-mails and they set up a website.

  Spikeopath2012-06-11

  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

• Grange Hill with gore

  Leofwine_draca2012-04-21

  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.

• Much better than Imagined

  sharpbunny20042009-05-23

  I saw it last night at a special preview. I will admit I only wanted to see it because of Alex P, but I was pleasantly surprised. I hate Horror films, but this was much more of a slasher film, and very funny in parts, which allowed you to relax and enjoy it. The deaths are rather imaginative and only one was quite obvious what was good was that for most you could laugh through each death . The acting is good on a whole, but a couple of the main characters do need some acting lessons, the whole cast is quite young but they have been able to develop each character well. This film will not be for everyone. It is very 'Skins' (teenager) orientated,as it uses a lot of slang and such. The plot is rather unrealistic but thats what makes it fun, anything could happen, and most things do. I would recommend this to someone who isn't too bothered about what they are watching, who is up for a good laugh, but doesn't mind a bit of blood and guts.

• Comedy Horror?

  tilak-minecraft2012-09-19

  Prior to watching this film I was looking forward to it, also I was curious because of the title. Tormented is your typical teen horror film, with a twist. It begins with the funeral of a bullied overweight school kid, Darren Mullet who committed suicide and soon turns into a situation that nobody would expect. He comes to life again to torment his tormentors. His only mission was revenge and payback. Interestingly everybody can relate with a person that they know who your typical overweight kid looks like Darren Mullet. He becomes a serial killer with the violent hunger for the taste of revenge. The victims are a bunch of your popular, athletic and preppy teens. They meet their fate in the ways only you imagine in your head. We have all thought of having been dropped from a distance onto metal fencing. The imaginative deaths give the film a comedy look as well as being horror. This is a big plus to the film as it makes your cringe and smile at the same time which is pretty rare. The acting I was impressed with, a quick fact I found was that the suffocation of Kalila was not CGI it was done in real and wasn't edited. This shows the commitment into the film. The negatives are the fact that the film is very stereotypical. Schools in Britain are not like the film. This is coming from a 16 year old who attends an academy school which ranges from the ages of 11-19. The stereotypes bring the film down. All together it is a decent film, but unfortunately not a "must watch".