Scorned (Blu-ray / DVD)
Staci Layne Wilson
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Starring Billy Zane, AnnaLynne McCord, Viva Blanca
Directed by Mark Jones
Distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment
As William Congreve wrote in The Mourning Bride in 1697: “Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, nor hell a Fury, like a woman scorn’d.”
Or as convicted murderer and most famous woman scorned in recent history Jodi Arias said at her trial in 2013, “I wanted to edify Travis.” She taught him a lesson, all right.
In Scorned, a gruesome and suspenseful new horror movie, sexy Sadie (AnnaLynne McCord) sets out to teach her philandering fiancé Kevin (Billy Zane) and her unfaithful friend Jennifer (Viva Bianca) that cheaters always lose. In an elaborate chain of lies leading to (literally) shocking events, Sadie lures them both to an isolated house where she traps, incapacitates, and tortures them mercilessly.
If that’s all there was to Scorned, I probably wouldn’t recommend it. Fortunately, in spite of its tired subject matter, it’s a well-paced, briskly-written and well-acted indie which keeps on topping itself in terms of twists and turns.
Writer-director Mark Jones and co-writer Sadie Katz clearly relished creating these characters and situations – one can tell in the set-up (sexts sent to misdirect), the atmosphere (the horror go-to: a dark and stormy night), juicy dialogue (“She has a magic pussy, huh? How’s that? Does she pull rabbits from it?”), and seriously disturbing scenes of violence (a tribute to Stephen King’s Misery, a dog placed inside a microwave oven, etc.).
While the lengths Sadie goes to certainly do strain the suspension of disbelief – as does the way in which things fall far too fortuitously into place – it’s still a fun, freaky flick. Keeping your expectations in line with the reality (it’s a low-budget film, and it’s not the Second Coming of Fatal Attraction) will go a long ways in ensuring your enjoyment of Scorned.
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