"Scorned" follows a woman (Annelynn McCord) who finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend (Viva Bianca). After finding out, she plans for a nice romantic weekend that is complete with torture, terror and psychotic games. Both her boyfriend and her best friend are going to find out that you don’t mess with a psychotic woman.
Going into this film, I was expecting “Scorned” to suck. I didn’t care about the plot and trailer going into this. Even though I went into this film with that expectation, this was for the most part a good film considering my expectations and the fact that I had a minor problem with the screenplay.
Mark Jones’ direction was better than I anticipated it was going be. One of things that I liked about his direction was the way that the film moves. I thought, this was going to be a long film considering I’m not a fan of films dealing with infidelity. Thankfully, it didn’t feel that way. Jones direction was able to make the action move at a considerable pace. Whether it was some of the film’s tense moments or its dialogue scene, I never got the sense that film was moving at a slow pace. It helped made me enjoy this film little more than I should have. Jones also does a great job with the way he directs his cast. The way that he directs his cast’s performances was enough to keep me invested in this film especially in the film’s last half hour, as they felt dark enough to fit the film’s tone. It helped made the final half hour watchable considering flaws in the screenplay.
Speaking of the performances, Annelynne McCord does a very good job with her performance. She does a very good job making her character very insane looking in the character’s mannerisms and tone. Her performance here was as good as it was in “Excision”. The supporting cast was also good too. Billy Zane did a very good job as the main character’s boyfriend who cheated on Sadie and Viva Blanca as the best friend who betrays Sadie by sleeping with him. The performances helped move the film along and made their characters interesting as it helped made the better than it should’ve been.
The screenplay written by Jones and Sadie Katz was not bad even though it had a couple of problem. I liked how they did a good job with the way that developed the main character during the course of the film. The writers spent a good amount time fleshing out the main character. From the main characters troubles as a child to what’s happening to her in the present helped made the character interesting throughout the course of the film. What I didn’t like about the screenplay was the fact that the last half hour of the film felt predictable and dumb. Whether it was the way the death scenes were handled to easily getting a sense of how this was going to end, it didn’t work for me. I would go into more detail but I don’t want to spoil this for anyone interested in this film. Still, it I didn’t enjoy it from a screenwriting perspective.
“Scorned” is worth watching for the performances and character development, but the last half hour made a very good film into an average film.
Review Rating: Three Stars.
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