Watching the Rebecca J. Matthews and Michael Hoad co-directed thriller A Woman Scorned it occurred to me that if it had featured a male protagonist then I likely wouldn't have reviewed it on this blog. I'm not sure if that points to a subconscious sexism on my part, but there is something about a woman being the one in peril that makes it fit more into horror. The female revenge genre of thrillers is one that can sometimes be hard to watch, but seeing a person perceived to be weak getting justice on her abusers is always satisfying. There have been plenty of good examples over the years, from the lows of such films as Even Lambs Have Teeth to the giddy heights of Revenge and Julia. This particular one might not be perfect, but it was very entertaining and satisfying to watch.
American siblings Jas (Megan Purvis - Don't Knock Twice) and Laura (Hannah Pauley - Monsternado) have gone away to the English countryside for the weekend to catch up, with it insinuated that Jas had been through a difficult time with an abusive ex. While exploring the countryside they chance upon a group of men, led by Randy (Aaron-Jon North - The Nun II). These men try to strike up a conversation with the sisters, but being suspicious of them, and with the safety of having a river separating them, Laura dismisses them and they leave. Later that day, while Jas has gone to the shop to buy some alcohol, Randy and his men turn up at the remote house they are staying at and forces his way in, with his men in tow. It isn't clear exactly what his intentions had been, but due to Laura fighting back, Randy shoots her dead in anger. Jas arrives home to the tragic scene and is distraught, but upon recognising the man left behind to dispose of the body as being part of the group her and Laura encountered earlier, Jas sets out for a night of most bloody revenge.
It all begins with a flash-forward that shows a bloody Jas standing over an injured Randy, pointing a gun at him. As the scene fades to black a gunshot rings out. I thought it was interesting to have the primary antagonist being shown to be killed. It certainly made me intrigued to know how events spiralled to that, but it also did take away some of the mystique and threat of the main bad guy. There is a lot to be found here that seemed a bit unbelievable, mainly with the character of Jas herself. She was played wonderfully by Purvis, and I would be lying my socks off if I said I wasn't rooting for her success every step of the way, but the way she was able to both dish out and take punishment was never that well explained. There was a throwaway comment near the start that she had taken up marital arts after a situation in her past, so I guess that explains how she is able to defeat a small armies worth of beefy men. Doesn't so much explain her bizarrely high tolerance for pain, she has a lot of bad stuff happen to her throughout the movie, everything from getting shot, electrocuted, beaten, knocked out, and battered. Each time though she just seems to channel her anger more and more, coming back from things that the antagonists never seem able to come back from. In my head canon, with her past not explained, I began to assume she was some type of highly skilled American agent!
Her battles with the various henchmen were the filling of the movie sandwich. I loved how incompetent the villains were, constantly underestimating Jas and reacting in horror to the scenes of carnage she leaves in her wake. With Jas attacking a room full of men while armed with a chainsaw before the film had even reached the half hour mark I knew that there would be a lot of exciting action to come. The pacing has Randy summoning up seemingly endless small groups of men to try and deal with the psychotic unstoppable woman, but them constantly being defeated due to over confidence. Some of these actors looked the part more than acted the part (a few dodgy line deliveries can be found throughout), but each has their own turn to have a fun, well choreographed fight scene with the frenzied woman who uses everything at her disposal to fight, from books and vases, to axes, knifes, and of course that chainsaw! I began to get a real John Wick feel with how battle damaged she got, while still maintaining the edge. It wasn't all perfect, with some plot holes that were never really explained. The biggest of these had Jas showing up at the bad guys HQ (some dusty barn somewhere) early on with no explanation as to how she knew that was where they were based. That fades away with the manic scenes of violence, plenty of excellent shots of blood pumping out of wounds, and dramatic death scenes. It only really let itself down during a kill that involved fire, the fire looking very CG, taking me out the story for a moment or two.
I didn't expect to enjoy A Woman Scorned half as much as I did. Jas might be a bit unrealistic, but her cathartic journey was a joy to behold, while the humorously ill prepared bad guys gave some black humour (such as when two men are listening at a door happily thinking their buddy is sexually assaulting Jas when in actuality the noises are from her stabbing the guy repeatedly!). Then you have North who was a fantastic antagonist to hate. This indie thriller might not be perfect, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to watch play out.
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