Tormented

MIGHT IT BE interesting to transfer the conventions of the American high-school slasher film to an English comprehensive? Well, I suppose it might. There are still enough social differences between the two nations for such an exercise to have some cultural purchase.

Sadly, the makers of this largely underwhelming bloodbath have done little more than relocate the familiar tribes – Goth kids, blonde bitches, nerds, goodie-goodies – to the West Midlands and persuade them to wear black blazers and school ties. If the film were shot in Orange County then it would look a little less like Channel 4's notorious Skins, but otherwise it behaves exactly as these things usually behave.

Adopting a largely moral approach despite it bloodthirstiness, Tormenteddeals with events following the apparent suicide of a bullied boy named Darren Mullet. At the funeral, the prim head girl delivers a moving eulogy, but, when challenged by one of the dead fellow's sat-upon pals, admits that she can barely remember Darren.

Then the bodies start piling up. Pupils seem to spot Darren staring through windows and lurking in the undergrowth. Are they in the grip of a mass delusion, or has he returned from the grave to have his revenge?

There are good things in Tormented. The cast (some of them graduates of Skins) are all very spirited and, as events progress, the killer finds some invigoratingly gruesome ways of carving up his victims. But the film looks awfully flat, and the absurd final twist (if I understand it correctly) asks more questions than it answers.

There is another interpretation of the ending, but, though in keeping with what went before, it renders the film as mad as a bag of very mad cats. Either way, Tormentedis something short of a masterpiece.

Directed by Jon Wright. Starring Alex Pettyfer, April Pearson, Calvin Dean, Georgia King, Tom Hopper 16 cert, gen release, 91 min