Taking off from classic teen revenge horror flicks like “Carrie” and, to a lesser extent “Urban Legends 3,” “Tamara” is yet another ho hum female fueled revenge horror entry about a brutally scorned woman coming back to strike at her killers. Young Tamara is a constant target for the jocks and popular kids in her high school and mocked on a daily basis, especially now that she’s written a controversial article about drug testing in the school which further gives them a reason. To get back at her, they play a very cruel prank which goes very awry giving her a bad case of death. And because she’s secretly a witchcraft practitioner, she comes back from the grave as one pissed off, undead, sexy avenging angel.
Isn’t it great how being evil kind of makes some women hot? Not to mention clean up all the messy aspects of her life, including a sexually abusive father. Rather than milking the fact she’s undead, the director much prefers to focus on the fact that headliner and star Jenna Dewan-Tatum is sexy. And who can blame him? But, she’s also undead, and a zombie, so it’s good to keep perspective. Tamara’s looks are laughably underplayed in the first half of the movie as is typical even with smaller productions like this. Dewan-Tatum is given stringy hair, no make-up, a purposely poor complexion, and really bad clothing.
When she comes back she has a great perm, a lot of make-up and some rather skimpy clothing. You have to wonder if hell has a great make over plan. Dewan-Tatum gives a very convincing performance as Tamara, doing her best to offer up a role with dimension. As dinky Tamara, she’s sympathetic, sweet and adorable. As evil Tamara, she’s—well—hot, and seems to have a lot of fun making the baddies suffer. That said, the high schoolers look to be at least in their thirties, and Riddick’s writing is atrocious. Also, for an evil undead witch, Tamara’s damage inflicted on people is surprisingly light save for two gruesome deaths.
She makes two guys rape each other, and she has a girl stuff herself—with veggies. You know you’ve seen it all, though, when someone is nearly beaten to death by an aluminum baking pan. As ninety minute horror filler sans a plot and depth, “Tamara” isn’t a masterpiece, and isn’t even a notable title in the sub-genre. But to its credit it does work on rare occasions with some very well staged gore, and minimal but effective make-up. Dewan-Tatum does most of the heavy lifting to keep the movie remotely watchable, and it ends in a sub-par, unremarkable revenge flick.