Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent adaptation.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Unattractive occult enthusiast Jenna Dewan (as Tamara Riley) desperately wants to play hide the eraser with her handsome high school English teacher Matthew Marsden (as Bill Natolly). Happy with his beautiful wife, Mr. Marsden pushes Ms. Dewan away when she tries to kiss him, after class. The other kids in school tease Dewan and decide to prank her. Knowing about her interest in teacher Marsden, they set up a fake rendezvous with him, ordering Dewan to get undressed and wait for her hunky lover. They secretly videotape her stripping down to a black bikini. After some taunting, Dewan appears to accidentally hit her head and die...But, she may not really be dead...This highly derivative horror story gets off to a poor start by introducing the incredibly sexy Dewan in a fantasy sequence. Then, we're supposed to think she's plain and unattractive. Moreover, she and the others look too old to be in high school. On a deeper level, it's odd that such a powerful young woman (as we later see) is unable to even brush her hair. But, everyone tries their best to impersonate the characters. Director Jeremy Haft and photographer Scott Kevan show skill, albeit wasted. The sex scenes are limp, with the camera shooting up Dewan's skirt a highlight. The gore scenes are a bit nervy, with the tongue slicing a highlight.**** Tamara (10/23/05) Jeremy Haft ~ Jenna Dewan, Matthew Marsden, Chad Faust, Katie Stuart

A shy and somewhat homely high school girl named "Tamara Riley" (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) writes an article for her school newspaper concerning steroid use among some of the student body and some people affected by this revelation seek their revenge upon her. So they trick her into believing that her English teacher, "Bill Natolly" (Michael Marsden), who she has a crush on, is waiting for her in a hotel room. Once there they videotape her taking her clothes off and getting into bed. When she realizes she's been duped a struggle ensues and she is killed. But what the students who set her up don't realize is that she is a witch and has cast a spell upon herself which brings her back to life. Only this time she is neither shy nor homely. But she is very vengeful. At any rate, in my opinion this movie was surprisingly good. The acting was fine as was the script and the cinematography. One particular fault was the students generally looked older than what you would find in a typical high school. But that often happens with movies of this type so it isn't anything unusual. And while the plot was hardly novel the film did have several attractive women in Katie Stuart ("Chloe"), Melissa Marie Elias ("Keesha") and the aforementioned Jenna Dewan-Tatum. Worth a watch for those who like films of this type.

Tamara is the kind of ugly girl that only the movies could conjure up. By that I mean it doesn't take much for her to be stunning. Highly flawed and yet somehow it manages to entertain. It's pretty much Carrie all over again, with a few tweaks here and there. Best of all is Jenna Dewan who does look incredible. I don't think she needed witchcraft to make people do what she wanted. There's also some scenes which aren't present in every slasher/horror. Most notably a rather gruesome self-mutilation. There are members of the cast you expect were cast for something other than their acting ability, but you'll also get some cheap thrills.

"Tamara" is a predictable-but-fun little teen horror flick, bolted together out of spare parts from films like "Carrie," "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "The Craft," to name just a few. Our "heroine" (and I use that term loosely), Tamara (Jenna Dewan), is a homely high school nerd who dabbles in witchcraft in her spare time. She's got an unrequited crush on her hunky, sensitive English teacher (Matthew Marsden) and is constantly picked on by the "populars" in her school. After she writes an article for the school paper "outing" the football team as steroid users, they naturally want to get back at her so they set up a particularly cruel prank where they make her think she's going to hook up with Hunky Teacher Guy at a local hotel. Naturally the naive Tamara is less than thrilled to find out that she's been fooled, and while struggling with her tormentors, she hits her head on a coffee table and dies. In true Horror Movie fashion, the Populars decide to simply bury her in the woods, swear to tell no one what happened, and move on.Imagine their surprise when Tamara simply sashays back into to school the next day as if nothing has happened, seemingly having gone through an Extreme Undead Hottie Makeover in the meantime. The "new" Tamara appears sweet enough at first, but quickly sets out to get revenge on the gang who wronged her, in the most brutal fashion possible. One kid recreates the "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Say No Evil" mantra with a razor knife, her abusive dad eats glass, a b*tchy cheerleader type vomits her guts out, etc., etc. Of course, Tamara's ambitions also extend to true happiness with her teacher, which means she has to get rid of his wife too. Will true love triumph over vengeance from the grave? OK, so "Tamara" is not a great movie by any means, but it is fun to watch. Jenna Dewan looks pretty hot even when she's supposed to be an Ugly Duckling in the first quarter of the film, but after she returns from the grave -- damn! The rest of the young cast perform their roles as obnoxious cannon fodder well enough, and the flick has decent production values and just the right amount of gore and nastiness. If you can get over the inherent silliness of it all, "Tamara" is a fun ride for B-horror fans."Tamara" gets an "A" for eye candy, a "C" for originality, and a "B-" for execution. Worth a look if you can find it cheap, like I did.