So I discovered “Tamara”, and have some thoughts...
So, I recently caught wind of this 2005 film, Tamara, which has been a bit of attention. Apparently this movie’s been getting some traction, but not a lot of love on here.
There’s very few posts on here about this movie, and as of this post, only two AO3 works based off it.
I don't see how this apparently went under the radar for so long, as it has the makings of similar cult classics such as Ginger Snaps, The Craft, Jennifer's Body and All Cheerleaders Die. So after checking it out, I figured I would give my thoughts, and spread the word.
Tamara Riley is a shy high school student, who lives with an abusive father, has a crush on her hot teacher, Bill Natolly, and looks for escapism through witchcraft.
Tamara is also a target of bullying, especially when she writes an article exposing her school's jocks for using steroids. Besides Natolly, only one other person seems to treat Tamara with any decency, and that would be Chloe, a new student who tries to befriend Tamara, but never gets the chance.
For the first third of the movie, this is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world. She looks so sad in photographs but...It gets worse from there.
For the first third, Tamara is a pretty sympathetic, likable, but flawed protagonist. As a villain, she is Jennifer Check lite (despite predating Jennifer by four years). Jenna Dewan really sells both sides of Tamara, with her performance as both being what carries this movie.
Tamara has a crush on her teacher, despite him being married and trying to conceive a child with his wife. Tamara even attempts a love spell to bind their fates together.
What's this ? A Villain Protagonist in a horror movie is problematic ? Stop the presses!
Tamara's initial flaws are believable and part of what makes her sympathetic; she wasn't malicious, and it's pretty clear before her transformation, she's socially naïve and gullible. This leads to Tamara's demise. She's lured into a ‘date’, with who she thinks is Natolloy, only to be lured into a prank orchestrated by Shawn.
Shawn is the movie’s secondary antagonist, and resident Hate Sink; a jock who was ousted from his team when he was exposed for taking performance enhancers, and refused to take a drug test.
So Shawn get's his friends, and three newcomers to lure Tamara to a party, tricking her into stripping on camera, in a prank which I'm pretty sure qualifies as sexual assault (not helping is that Shawn is later revealed to be a serial rapist).
When Tamara is accidentally killed in the ensuing struggle, Shawn threatens the rest of the party into secrecy while disposing of Tamara's body...and now they gotta pay with it for their lives.
See, Tamara's ritual could only be completed when she spills her blood, but she ultimately backs out on it; but when she's killed, her blood spills completing the ritual without her knowledge and consent. From there, Tamara rises as a confident, sultry and vengeful revenant, out to take what she thinks is hers.
What keeps Tamara tragic is, this movie is clear that what she's doing isn't really her her. Tamara's villainous personality is the result of magic she took in from her ritual, making her a near 180 of her mortal self.
Towards the end, she has this “What have I done/become ?” moment where she realizes she's become a monster, only to snap back because the spell is just stronger than her.
As a villain, I think Tamara was at her best when seeking revenge; she takes no one's bullshit, unapologetically vengeful, wicked, and has a sense of poetic justice.
Most of her villainy is brainwashing and enslaving others, tormenting her victims with hallucinations, and through some ironic punishment. Tamara only directly kills two people, both of them being gnarly; she tells her abusive alcoholic dad to finish his bottle, and the guy is forced to eat it.
The revenant revenge plot was where the movie was at its best, IMO. I honestly wish they kept it as a revenge story for the third act. Preferably with Shawn as the de-facto antagonist.
If one thing holds Tamara back, I think it's her obsession with Mr. Natolly; and the movie is pretty weak in the last third, focusing on a rescue mission for Natolly and his wife. You can make the argument Tamara is magically bound to her crush - her spell was to bind their fates together. But I still think it takes away from Tamara's agency.
Tamara’s not like Jennifer Check, Ginger Fitzgerald or Nancy Downs - whose transformations highlight toxic qualities that are already there - it’s literally “Dark Magic rewrites her whole personality”.
As for the other characters, a few others stand out.
Mr. Bill Natolly and his wife Alison are pretty likable, and are the more sympathetic characters. They both mean well, and are genuinely excited about starting a family.
Bill genuinely wanted to help Tamara, and she misreads his singles and tries to kiss him. Bill is understanding of Tamara and tries to explain things to her, before she walks out in embarrassment.
Bill, through no fault of his own, is roped into this drama; he was bound to Tamara's "spell", and it was only cast when Tamara was murdered. Now that his life is bound to Revenant!Tamara, and the only way Tamara and her spell can be broken is if Bill makes a sacrifice of his own.
There's also the film's ostensible protagonist, Chloe Bowman.
A new girl who stands up for Tamara, Chloe soon becomes a witness/unwitting participant to the prank, and Tamara’s subsequent murder. In fact, Chloe's attempts to help Tamara gets her mistaken for a perpetrator and is what escalates the fight. As a result, Chloe feels guilt for Tamara's death.
Not helping is that Shawn intimidates the party, including Chloe's supposed boyfriend, into covering up the incident. Chloe’s is kind of a hit and miss. As a protagonist, she's pretty bland and is mostly just along for the ride.
On the other hand, the pieces are there to make her a great character, and to have a dynamic with Tamara. It's just they aren't really utilized. In the original script, it would be revealed that Chloe is a closeted lesbian, and implicitly in love with Tamara. In the final film, Chloe is also the one who breaks through to Tamara.
Near the end Tamara looks into Chloe's mind, learning that she genuinely cared for and tried to help her. It's this that allowed the real Tamara to resurface and break down over what she's done and become.
Like holy shit, that sounds like the climax for a tragic love story, doesn’t it ?
Unfortunately, outside of that, the movie doesn't do much with these two; they don't really bond before Tamara's death; no significant interactions following her resurrection, until the climax.
Chloe feels like she's supposed to be the Needy Lesnicki or Sarah Bailey of this story. But unlike Jennifer's Body or The Craft, we don't get that same “Sapphic Enemies/Broken Friendship” that we get with Jennifer x Needy, or Sarah x Nancy.
It feels like a case of They Wasted of a Perfectly Good Plot/Character.
Would I recommend this movie ? Sure, but it's really nothing spectacular. I think All Cheerleaders Die or Jennifer's Body are closer to what Tamara was trying to be or could have been, but it's not completely unsalvageable.
And for what it's missing, that's what AO3 is for, amiright ?
