The Scorned review

[The Scorned]
Plot:In a hidden beach house on the Malibu shore, a 'twenty something' couple have a 'spitting mad' lover's quarrel. The boyfriend storms out, and into the arms of their house mate. When the infidelity is discovered, horrible violence ensues, ending with the house mate soaked in blood, the boyfriend crying in the corner of the room and his girlfriend apparently dead in the hot tub. 17 Months Later: A group of attractive twenty somethings move into the abandoned beach house, unaware of the tragedy that had kept the house vacant all these months. One by one, temptation seduces the house mates into betraying their romantic relationships and they are punished for their infidelities, by an avenging angel of death. When the first victim is killed, the police believe that it is simply a drug overdose, but a whacked out spiritualist believes in actuality, it was the ghost of the dead girlfriend. With the help of the spiritualist, the new tenants of the house fight to survive and search desperately to unlock the shocking mystery.

Cast: Steven Hill, Jenna Lewis, Bob Guiney, Trish Schneider, Trishelle Cannatella, Reichen Lehmkuhl, Jon Dalton, Ethan Zohn, Jenna Morasca, Stacie Jones Upchurch, Tonya Cooley, Toni Ferrari.

My Thoughts:Not half bad for tv movie of the week fodder.

Review:"The Scorned" is the horror film that starred a cast filled from top to bottom with former reality tv stars,and was the basis of E!s "Kill Reality" show which concluded a few months ago.The film was said to be so bad that E! wouldn't let it see the light of day and it's air date was pushed back constantly.Then along comes Halloween and they decide to air the film at 9 p.m. head to head with "WWE's Monday Night Raw" (go figure)."The Scorned" follows a couple who after a fight with his girlfriend Reina (Trish Schneider), Matt (Bob Guiney) the boyfriend, decides to have *relations* with their female roommate,which results in his fling ending up dead,along with Reina.The question is,did Reina kill herself,or did someone off her too? Of course the logical question would be why in the heck would a guy in a commited relationship have a female roommate and why would his girlfriend allow it but hey this is a made for tv movie,so whos keeping score.A few years later some *pretty people* rent the place out unaware of it's bloody past."The Scorned" operates on the principals of most horror movies,where the asshole jock,the slut,or the *superiority complex* characters all get it in some bloody and painful fashion.But in this movie we have a bunch of male and female *sluts* who get offed one by one as they betray their relationships with their respected lovers. The kills in this film are pretty cool and creative.It's kind of sad when you think about it because had they had a huge studio budget or even a decent B movie budget,they could've done some wonderful things with some of the death scenes. two death scenes in particular stand out and are ones you are gonna wanna look for in this film should you catch it on E! or get the forthcoming DVD. One where a girl gets swallowed up by the ground beneath her and another where a lava lamp explodes onto a scandalous couple eating them alive via acidous ectoplasm.Amongst all of the sexual relations and killing is detective Kozlowski played by Toni Ferrari who after the first murder begins investigating the house and it's current tenants. The thing that worried me the most in this film going into it was the acting,seeing as how these people are all former reality tv stars,most of which tend to suck at acting for some reason.However I have to give the folks behind this film some credit.The acting wasn't excellent but for this kind of film it was pretty good.They certainly took their time running through names of former reality stars and chosing the ones they felt could do the job at atleast a halfly decent level as opposed to failing miserably.The pic does have it's problems,as sometimes the actors seem more like they are actually reciting lines rather than playing a real character and the way the film is shot totally gives away it's low budget feel...a bit too much in some scenes."The Scorned" also has a high predictability level with the one couple being left in the final stanza of the movie,easy to predict would've been the last housemates left alive.But to the films credit,it nixes that predictability a bit with two twists during the films final moments which work moderately well. "The Scorned" albeit a made for tv,sexually charged supernatural thriller/horror has a good message behind it,compiled with some decent acting and some creative kills.It honestly could've turned out to be a disaster,but instead was an interesting ghost film.I actually had more fun watching this than I did Uwe Bolls "Alone in the Dark"which was a feature film with no reality stars in the cast.Whether thats a good or bad thing,you be the judge.

Pros:Creative kills,decent acting for reality show people,some nice twists at the end.This film also had a surprisingly moderate to large amount of blood for a made for tv horror movie.

Cons:Could've been shot better to hide the low budget/made for tv factor more.Honestly I've seen episodes of CSI shot better than this.

Overall:Worth a watch.