Scorned (Blu-ray Review)
If you’re going to cheat on your lover, don’t get caught. And if you do get caught, you’d better hope your lover isn’t secretly insane. Kevin (Billy Zane of TITANIC) learns the hard way when his girlfriend Sadie (AnnaLynne McCord of 90210) discovers that he’s having a scorching affair with her best friend (Viva Bianca of Spartacus). Now Sadie has planned a romantic weekend getaway for just the three of them, complete with terror, torture and twisted psychosexual games. The trap is set. The party has begun. And tonight, hell hath no fury like a woman SCORNED.
Film 
Scorned is a new thriller starring Billy Zane, Viva Bianca, and Annalynne McCord and is brought to us by Anchor Bay. It’s the story of Kevin (Zane) who is with Sadie (McCord) but is having an affair with her best friend Jennifer (Bianca). When Sadie finds out she sets up the perfect trap to ensnare both of the guilty parties and exact her some revenge. That really is the gist of the story in Scorned. Sadie channels her inner Kathy Bates of Misery fame and proceeds to smash, shock, pull, ply, burn, and pretty much just torture the hell out of her cheating boyfriend and best friend.
It all takes place at Kevin’s parents home on the mountainside of some nameless town that all the while Sadie and her prisoners do their thing at the bottom of the hill and coincidentally nearby a prisoner has escaped and is being hunted by police. Yeah, it’s one of the most random subplots I have ever seen and even when it comes to fruition at the tail end of the film does not help clarify some glaring plot points that were overlooked by including it.
This is clearly a low-budget independently financed flick and it shows. Our three leads are okay in their roles while everyone that isn’t one of the main leads is downright awful. It was amateur night for supporting and voiceover actors, I reckon. For all its drawbacks the torture scenes and bloody violence are terrific and effective but what isn’t effective is Billy Zane and Viva Bianca shaking off their horrific injuries just minutes after they’ve been smashed or beaten to a pulp.
The true revelation and the reason why Scorned gets one star are due to Annalynne McCord. McCord is downright delicious in her role as the psychotic Sadie. She revels in it and is having a ball being the ball breaker of the film. Her southern accent is also cute as hell and she also has a very seductive side that she uses to her advantage. She really is the best part of the film in my opinion. Another thing that I found quite distracting was that Zane doesn’t quite handle the sheer agony of his torture in a believable manner. Lots of messed up crap happens to him and he almost looks like he wants to laugh as opposed to cry in pain. Yeah, I know it’s a low budget film but at least make me believe that what you’re enduring is actually somewhat painful.
In any event, Scorned is very much disposable but if you must see it then do it for Annalynne McCord. She is a doll and so is Viva Bianca but McCord steals the show. She really does seem like the only that is having any kind of fun and is relishing it.
Video 
Scorned is presented in 1080p, 1.78 widescreen. It’s obvious that Scorned has its roots firmly planted in the low budget world. Video-wise Scorned looks like a made-for-television movie about half the time. I don’t know if this was due to using different cameras in various stages of filming or what. One minute it would look great and cinematic the next it would look like a soap opera. Flesh tones are natural even during the various instances of torture. Black crush is not a problem and color separation is quite nice. Contrast levels do seem boosted in a couple of night time shots but the majority of the film takes place indoors under warm lights, so that was no big deal. Scorned is just a tad above average overall in the video department.
Audio
Scorned is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. This audio track is very robust considering that it’s such a low budget feature. Things get real juicy during the torture scenes and in one of the ankle smash scenes. I nearly lost my lunch during that scene. The sound was great. Dialogue is also clear and crisp and the surround channels took the day off, because they remain relatively silent during most of the film. The LFE channel also only gets in a jab or two throughout. Scorned really sounds better than it looks.
Extras 
Wow, lots of goose eggs have been given out this year. Scorned has no extras.
Summary
Scorned is a pretty awful movie with only a couple of redeeming qualities. Annalynne McCord is actually pretty great in it and the sound quality on the Blu-ray is tops. Other than that, Scorned is the type of film that used to run on Showtime at 3am way back when, and not in a good way.
Order Scorned on Blu-ray!
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