Retro Film Review: Scorned (A Woman Scorned, 1993)

For the outside observers white-collar job in big corporation might look like a perfect embodiment of the American dream, but in the beginning of 1993 erotic thriller Scorned a.k.a. A Woman Scorned such dream reveals its sinister side. Truman Langley (played by Dan McVicar) is too aware how thin is the line between success and failure in the ultra competitive dog-eat- dog world of corporate America. When the chance for promotion comes, it must be pursued at all costs and without any scruples, even if it means prostituting his own wife Patricia (played by Shannon Tweed) to the bosses. His efforts nevertheless fail, a new position is given to Alex Weston (played by Andrew Stevens) and disgraced Langley commits suicide. His wife vowes to avenge him and does so by taking new identity and posing as a French tutor to Weston's teenage son Robey (played by Michael D. Arenz). She carefully manipulates her way into the Weston's home and start using her seductive abilities on Alex, his son and even his wife Marina (played by Kim Morgan Greene) in order to turn the family members against each other and make their lives a living hell.

All those who watched Curtis Hanson's thriller The Hand That Rocks the Craddle might have noticed that the film lacked erotic dimension. This was about to be compensated in this low budget exploitation thriller that used similar plot but completely different set of acting talents. This time the chief villain is played by Shannon Tweed, the queen of 1990s erotic thrillers, and she puts her physical attributes and irresistible on-screen charm to the good use. Although the plot gave some opportunity for the ambitious writers to explore dark Machiavelian realities of corporate America and dysfunctional families, the script by Barry Avrich was simplistic yet adequate for this kind of film and gave enough material to those who trash elements in modern cinema (like a woman managing to seduce all members of American nuclaer family). Unfortunately, the direction by Andrew Stevens is often messy and the inadequate ending, more appropriate for different kind of low budget movies, ruins opportunity for A Woman Scorned to become trash classic of 1990s. This way it could be recommended only to the die hard fans of Shannon Tweed.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 10th 2001)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/64084-scorned?language=en-US Critic: AA