Customer Reviews

Tamara

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Tamara is an occasionally diverting horror film. The title character (well played by dancer Jenna Dewan) is a shy, nerdy high school student who manages to get on the bad side of the jocks at her school. Natrually, this leads to the jocks pulling a rather cruel prank on Tarma and, of course, this leads to Tamara accidentally getting killed and buried out in the woods. However, like all shy, nerdy girls in these types of films, Tamara was into black magic and, the next day, everyone is quite surprised to see Tamara boldly back from the dead, strutting through the school hallways in a high heels and a red bustier. Not only has returning from the dead given Tamara a new look but it's also left her with a thirst for revenge and the supernatural powers necessary to get it.

The film's plot will be obvious to anyone who has ever seen a horror film and neither director Jeremy Haft or writer Jeffrey Reddick offer up any new twists on a familiar story. However, the film does occasionally feature some memorable moments. Though most of the actors sleepwalk through their roles, three actresses do offer up performances that transcend the limitations of their parts. As Tamara's best friend, Katie Stuart is immensely likeable and believable as a well-meaning teenager who has suddenly found herself in over her head. Claudette Mink, who plays the unfortunate wife of a teacher that Tamara has a crush on, is good in a relatively thankless role and she brings a real sense of fear to the scenes where she's menaced by Tamara's magic. She makes those scenes real and, for a few minutes at least, helps the picture rise above the limitations of its plot. As the title character, Jenna Dewan gives a strong and credible performance. Her strongest moments are in the beginning of the film when she makes Tamara's loneliness very real and poignant. Her terror and shame when she discovers that she's been the victim of a cruel prank is never less than believable and it helps to make an awkward scene very credible. Once she returns from the dead as evil Tamara, she is betrayed by a script that requires her to be almost too campy to be truly threatening but Dewan still manages to believably convey the anger and the need for revenge that lies underneath the surface of someone whose spent their entire life being picked on.

The direction from Jeremy Haft is rather pedestrian for most of the film until the final fifteen minutes or so. At this point, the survivors of Tamara's revenge find themselves under seige in a small hospital and it is here that the film actually comes alive. Haft creates a good deal of tension in these scenes and actually makes the fate of some of Tamara's victims rather tragic. The closing sequence of this film is almost good enough to excuse the rather lame moments that preceded it and it is in these final scenes that Tamara is the most compelling.

In the end, Tamara is a wildly uneven film and probably one that won't be enjoyed by people who aren't fans of horror films. However, Tamara has just enough promising moments to make it worth taking a chance on.

Tamara was a good entertaining horror/teenage angst movie in the same vein as De Palma's Carrie and pretty much most of the teenage revenge/slasher flicks of the late 70's and early 80's. Such horror films involved the high school jocks and popular cliques getting their comeuppance by way of the nerdy student who has had enough. This time around the nerd in question is one Tamara whose shy, bookish and frumpy nature makes her an easy mark for every other kid in school.

Newcomer and extremely hot Jenna Dewan plays the title role and she does a very good job pulling off the dual personality role Tamara goes through the film. The first half of the film Dewan was very believable as the mousy and nerdy student whose low self-esteem adds to keeping her ostracized from the rest of the student population. It doesn't help that she begins to misread one of her teacher's (played by Matthew Marsden) attempts to help her as some sort of seduction she so craves. There is a small bit of a bright side to her daily existence in the form Chloe (played by Katie Stuart), she of the popular girl with a heart-of-gold role. Tamara's life soon turns for the worst as her attempts to show her love for her helpful teacher is rebuffed and her published article about drug-use in athletics puts her in the crosshairs of a couple of jocks with much to lose.

Typical of such teenage revenge horror movies, the cruel jocks and popular kids concoct a plan to humiliate and embarrass Tamara, but just like those past films their plans backfire and the target of their pans gets killed during the the prank. The filmmaker really don't add something new to this tried and tested formula. Instead of calling for the authorities to report the accidental death of their schoolmate, the kids decide, through the bullying of the alpha-male in the group, to bury Tamra instead and forget anything ever happened. This plan probably would've worked if Tamara wasn't dabbling in witchcraft as ostracized teenagers are wont to do. Tamara's spell prior to the prank to spellbound her teacher backfires as its activated by the spilling of her blood and to the surprise of the students who did her harm she returns alive, healthy and completely different the start of the new school week.

To say that Tamara returns utterly different in more ways than one is an understatement. Ms. Dewan does a vampy, sometimes campy, job portraying the new and improved Tamara. Dewan goes from nerdy, plain-jane Tamara to ultra-sexy, barely there skirt wearing teen seductress whose touch does more than seduce those she has targeted for revenge. Jenna Dewan as the reborn Tamara steams up the screen with her overt sexuality and he practically saves the film from just being an ok, by-the-numbers horror movie. Tamara is Ms. Dewan's film from beginning to end and she does a very good job of keeping the story interesting even if it meant just being on the screen.

This film doesn't break new ground in the realm of teen horror. In fact, it's a mish-mash of alot of past teen horror flicks of the past that one could see the many influences in its story. Tamara is part Carrie, Black Christmas, The Craft and a slew of other teenage horror movies. The direction is adequate at best and that's really all one could hope for in a genre film like Tamara. What makes this film entertaining and worth watching is the joy of discovering the new talent in Jenna Dewan. Tamara might not be a great horror film, but Ms. Dewan sure more than tries to make it more than it's B-movie pedigree.

I actually came across this movie on cable a couple of nights ago,and watched it more out of boredom than anything else,only to be surprisingly entertained. The story revolves around a teenager [played well by newcomer Jenna Dewan] who is a misfit at school, her only motivation being a well-meaning teacher [played by Matthew Marsden], and a kind friend in the form of Chloe [Katie Stuart]. Tamara gets into the bad books of some of the popular kids in school when her expose on doping in athletics is published in the school paper...this sets the scene for a cruel prank that goes horribly awry when Tamara ends up dead and is buried in the woods. The twist here is that Tamara was also a novice witch who dabbled in the black arts, and she returns from the grave as a sexy, malicious vixen hell-bent on exacting her revenge on all who cross her, including some innocents, such as her English teacher upon whom she has a crush, his wife and even Chloe. Though the plot is really nothing new, and has been done in different variations, Jenna Dewan's Tamara is sufficiently convincing and compelling to watch, and the methods she uses to get back at her enemies, though not highly original, nevertheless make for entertaining viewing. "Tamara" is not a great horror movie, but it is actually a pretty decent B movie that bears at least one viewing.

I just dont get how this piece of crap movie has so many good reviews on here. The acting is so cheesey, it comes off as a porno with the sex scenes removed from the film.
I didnt find 1 scene in this movie to be scary or realistic. In one scene a kid has worms growing out of his arms, its the worst computer generated scene EVER.
The movie "TEEN WITCH" was more frightening and convincing then this pile of garbage.

The girl goes from "ugly nerd" to "sexy vixen" the only thing they did to this girl was fix her eyebrows, put on lipstick and do her hair... UNREAL!.

PLEASE wait for this on cable. it would be a shame if someone wasted a dime on this .

I thought the movie was quite good actually. It starts out as a tale about a young girl who wasn't drop dead gorgeous but wasn't particularly ugly either. Anyway,she isn't popular at all.

Anyway, some of her classmates decide that it will be funny to set her up. They convince her that a teacher who she has a crush on is going to meet with her at an apartment. When she gets there,she finds out that it was a trick.

Anyway, it gets rather interesting from there. If you like pretty girls and if you like pretty and violent girls, this is definitely the movie for you!! I enjoyed it.

Not scary , but not too bad either and I don't care for the ending. Tamara was bullied a lot she practices witch craft, something happens she got kill comes back and all kind of stuff happen.

Tamara is a high school girl who just doesn't fit in very well. She is quiet and plain on the outside but full of normal emotions on the inside. She has a crush on a teacher and has fantasies concerning them. Her feelings can be hurt and she wants to strike back. But her bookish nature puts her on the track of some witchcraft books. One has a spell that will make the object of her crush fall for her. But when it gets to the final step of the spell, Tamara chickens out. But the spell is accidently completed when the popular students set a mean trap for Tamara. A trap that results in her death. The students decide to hide her body and say nothing. They don't want their futures ruined by an accident.

But then Tamara returns to school. A new and improved Tamara full of confidence and dressing to show her real beauty. This Tamara also wants revenge for being killed and buried. Now her touch can make people fall in love with her and they are them willing to do anything for her. Tamara's vengeance grows and grows ans she gets more and more out of control. Can she be stopped before everyone is killed? You will have to watch to find out.

A little different from most teen revenge horror films. Although not as original as Carrie or The Girl Most Likely To, it still manages to stand a bit higher than most. Unfortunately there were a few moments where the production failed to achieve. For instance in one scene two guys are convinced to make out. When discovered by a girlfriend, they are completely clothed and look like they were merely hiding under the covers. While this topic can be too edgy for some, if you are going to write it into the film, it should be done right. But for the most part the movie stands up well and has some real tension. If you like horror a step above typical mad slasher antics then you should check this one out.

I have read other reviews of this movie, and a lot of people are comparing Tamara with 80's Horror Films. I can see the comparisons, the way the movie follows a formula, and although it isn't a blatant rip-off of one certain movie, it most certainly shadows certain scenes and characters throughout.
Tamara is a quiet introvert with a talent for writing she is in love with her teacher even though he is older and married and obviously off limits. She wears outdated clothing, her eyebrows are in need of waxing, her hair is mousy and unruly, she hunches over, it's a perfect caricature of the "nerdy ugly beautiful girl" waiting for her big break. What is different about her is that we know she is a witch, that she has performed spells on the poor teachers wife so she wont have kids, Yes she is bullied in the shower room a la Carrie style (without the tampons) but I for one didn't feel sorry for her. She wasn't innocent, the bullies thought they would be teaching her a lesson about her feelings for teach and for exposing them for taking steroids, although that was the wrong thing to do, I do believe that Tamara needed to be shown how ridiculous the fantasy of this man leaving his wife really was. Her death was an accident, and they should have gone to the police, although Tamara would have turned into the Vamp regardless, so I understand that plot direction. Why involve the cops, when we are supposed to see how the guilty get what's coming to them through her vengeance.
What ensues is her taking them out one by one, using them as her weapons against each other, and against her ultimate enemy, the teacher's wife. The Special Effects were both chilling and disappointing. I loved the "hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil" kill, but some of the others were muddled by poor CGI and prosthetics, in that aspect it really copied the 80's motif. In the end, we don't like her and we want the survivors to live, as it should be, and the sacrifice of an innocent for the good of the group is beyond copying the 80's it is true for stories of human nature from all times. I am sure that every male watching thought her demise was a waste, but its also true that her beauty was completely false, enhanced by witchcraft and her hatred, skin deep, and just as fragile.

If you're fascinated with revenge flicks like CARRIE or WILLARD, then TAMARA is an okay entry in this genre. Jenna Dewan plays both the mousy outcast and the suddenly sexy siren who wreaks revenge on the group that humiliated and eventually killed her. Dewan has a nice foxy demeanor and she uses it well, and the rest of the twenty somethings who play teenagers also fit the bill. Matthew Marsden adds some nice maturity as the English teacher who is the desire of the lonely Tamara. It's all a little gory and preposterous, but it has style and it's entertaining, and with the recent horde of horrible horror movies, it's a good break!

About one minute into the teen horror epic "Tamara," I pulled out my B-movie goggles. It is instantly apparent that this film won't win awards or critical acclaim, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been fun. There are plenty of cheesy (or gruesome) indie shockers that I have appreciated. A film of this type can entertain as long as it fully embraces and acknowledges its limitations. If nothing else--get in my face, shock me, repulse me, make me cringe at bad one-liners--anything to connect me to the material and make me overlook its shortcomings. That said, "Tamara" comes close to being a good time but falls woefully short where it mattered the most.

The plot of "Tamara" is familiar and serviceable. Borrowing from dozens of more successful flicks, "Tamara" pieces together a tale of witchcraft and revenge. Tamara is a shy high school misfit. We know this because she wears oversized clothes and has bad hair, even though she is clearly beautiful. Barely able to put two words together because of social awkwardness, we are supposed to accept that she is a star pupil (even though she's seen sleeping through class) and a crack investigative journalist who has uncovered a steroid scandal at school. Well, her classmates are none too happy about this! Using her infatuation with the English teacher, they lure her into a practical joke with unexpectedly nasty consequences. Let's just say that Tamara strikes back with the assistance of her supernatural leanings--she has studied witchcraft.

Now begins a revenge tale, Tamara seeks justice for what was done to her as well as staking a claim on her true "love." From frumpy to porn star, she now has the looks and abilities necessary to drive others to do her bidding. Some of her revenge fantasies play out well and are acceptably wicked. The special effects aren't always that special, but I can overlook that. What I couldn't accept, however, are that the performances didn't elevate the material. The Tamara character could have been an incredibly fun, nasty, and humorous creation--but, in actuality, came across very flat. Whether the script or the performance or both, it just left a big void at the center of "Tamara." This character could have been B-movie nirvana connecting us to ghoulish delights. But, sorry, it fell short.

It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it actually might have been "bad movie" great under other circumstances. Only two stars, and I'm not sure why I gave it the extra one--maybe because it was a better movie in my mind or maybe because of witchcraft. KGHarris, 12/06.