Scorned

A romantic weekend turns horrific and sadistic when Sadie (AnnaLynne McCord)discovers her boyfriend (Billy Zane) is having an affair with her best friend (Viva Bianca).

If you are looking for a film about a kidnapper who tortures her victims for perceived wrongdoing, you will be better off with "Misery" (referenced here) or "Death and the Maiden". Despite a decent cast (I never tire of seeing Billy Zane), this plot is just not all that special and comes across as disposable -- despite a strange subplot / twist relating to a nearby prison...

In fact, this film probably deserves a 3 out of 10, but I cannot bring myself to do that because of one thing: AnnaLynne McCord. I loved her in "Excision", and now she has returned better than before. Some people do a good job playing crazy, and some (Jack Nicholson) are born for it. McCord may be in this category. A terrible film, yes, but an Oscar-worthy performance. If she gets the right roles, we may not have seen the last of her yet...

Directed and co-written by Mark Jones, Scorned adds nothing new to a well worn sub-genre of horror, that of the vengeful female unleashing hell after becoming victim to infidelity etc. Approaching this with any sort of hope for a bar raiser will only induce a crushing disappointment, but if able to accept it on its formulaic terms then it's a good torture porn time waster.

Plot finds AnnaLynne McCord as the woman scorned, her beau, played by Billy Zane, has been cheating on her with her best friend, Viva Bianca. Caught out by incriminating text messages, she lures the cheaters to an idyllic retreat and subsequently tortures them at will. The narrative drip feeds a troubled childhood angle into the mix, while there's some twists and turns to keep things lively in the final third. Tech credits are more than adequate, while performances from the three principles also scrub up nicely for the material to hand. 6.5/10

I understand this is 'meant' to be some kind of dark comedy, but it's really just ridiculous. The acting is terrible, the story, if you can call it that, is terrible. It's trying desperately to be something it's not. I can only say Billy Zane must be in debt or something for agreeing to be in this trash.

Rich love-rat Kevin (Billy Zane) cheats on his girlfriend Sadie (AnnaLynne McCord) with her sexy BFF Jennifer (Viva Bianca). When Sadie rumbles the infidelity (after finding saucy text messages on Kevin's cellphone) she decides to teach the naughty pair a lesson they won't forget.

Halfway through Scorned and I was about to write the film off as a total failure, when I suddenly realised that the ridiculous script and overblown performances were intentional: I was actually watching a dark comedy! I guess the fact that I couldn't discern the film's intended nature for quite some time still makes it something of a failure, but after my epiphany, the rest of the movie proved far more bearable, with AnnaLynne McCord's performance being a master-class in OTT cinematic craziness.

With Sadie prancing around in her panties, sexy Jennifer showing us exactly how she managed to turn Kevin's head, some reasonably sadistic violence (including a nasty hobbling scene inspired by Misery), and the hilarious sight of an escaped convict, tattooed over his entire face, thumbing a lift in the rain, Scorned actually proved to be a reasonably fun way to waste some time. While not the finest title on Billy Zane's filmography, it's not the biggest embarrassment on it either (there are so many to choose from).

I've never seen AnnaLynne McCord in anything before, I watched this film because Billy Zane was in it and he was solid in Dead Calm and Titanic.

The beginning put me off because of the unannounced text messages that were confusing for a second.

The plot is tired and inconsistent, the scenes totally unbelievable and the content is clichéd and cheesy: scorned girlfriend tortures and kills her boyfriend for cheating on her with her best friend.

However right from the moment she comes on screen AnnaLynne McCord rocks this movie all by herself. Viva Bianca is typical B movie stuff, Billy Zane is absolutely appalling barely even scraping B actor status in this, but McCord is A rated throughout, in every scene,despite having awful dialogue and poor direction in scenes.

She makes this movie totally hers and outclasses everyone else, and the score on this review is really for her alone. I recommend this movie simply for those who enjoy great acting, but only for McCord.