Review of Tamara (1968) by Justin B — 10 Aug 2009

Even 2 stars is being generous... A hokey but original premise full of potential that starts great but slowly boils down to a half baked, cliched mess.

The films primary downfall is the horrendously skewed sense or morality. The movie begins with a disturbingly real story of an alienated girl who is bullied at school only to go home to her alcoholic, sexually abusing father. On top of this, she's infatuated with her english teacher a good 10 years her senior who is also married to another member of the faculty.

Even after discovering her interest in the black arts we still feel for her. Now the movie could have just focused around this part and could have passed as a solid coming of age high school drama but anyone watching the movie knows whats coming and after seeing the abuse she takes...we want her to get some sweet satisfying revenge.

Tamara's revenge is weak and poorly executed and the movie starts to focus on the teens that did her wrong. Now we as an audience are confused about who we are voting for. DO we cheer for the pompous ass highschool jocks who killed an innocent young girl? Or do we cheer for the vengeful demon bitch who's first victim was the nerdy AV kid who actually didn't take much part in her death? Well we WANT to cheer for Tamara but the movie forces is in the other direction unfortunately.

Even this becomes the least of your worries as the movie slowly melts into oblivion in the final chapter with a lame conclusion and a "shocker" ending that makes no sense whatsoever. Even Tamara's character gets less and less screen time towards the end.

Even with the lame execution, the movie was somewhat entertaining and the first half is enough to give it a bit of a credit...but even so...it isn't recommended.