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Tormented (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
Tormented is a 2009 horror-comedy film starring Alex Pettyfer
, April Pearson
, Dimitri Leonidas
, Calvin Dean
and newcomer Tuppence Middleton
. Directed by Jon Wright
and written by newcomer Stephen Prentice
, the film was released on 22 May 2009 in the UK. Tormented was produced by BBC Films
, Pathé
, Slingshot Studios, Forward Films
, and Screen West Midlands, and the music was composed by Orbital
member Paul Hartnoll
.
) being escorted out of Fairview High School by the police, as other pupils look on. There is then a flashback to five days earlier, where Justine is reading at the funeral of unpopular, asthma
tic student Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean
). She starts to talk about him, when Mullet's equally unpopular friend, Jason Banks (Olly Alexander
), stands up in church and angrily calls her a hypocrite
because she did not really know him. He is then thrown out of church by the sadistic PE teacher. Later on, Justine is talking to her friend Helena (Mary Nighy
) about staying in and watching a Keira Knightley DVD, when school heart-throb Alex (Dimitri Leonidas
) decides to invite her to a party his popular friends, Bradley (Alex Pettyfer
), Tasha (April Pearson
), Khalillah (Larissa Wilson
), Sophie (Georgia King
), and Marcus (Tom Hopper
), are having. She decides to go to the party, rather than staying in with Helena.
At the party, Justine arrives and Tasha tells Jez, the DJ, to say something about her appearance. He begins to rap about her, when Alex tells him to stop, and he is thrown out of the party by Bradley. Later, Alex and Justine go somewhere quiet, and he tells her they are on a date, at which point they kiss. Bradley, Tasha, Khalillah, Marcus and Sophie all receive horrible text messages from Mullet's number. During this, someone puts on a clown costume and grabs a chainsaw, before heading up to the room where they are kissing. The figure is revealed to be Bradley, who is playing a prank on them. Jez goes to the cemetery to celebrate Mullet's death, and urinates on his grave, but is killed by an unseen figure, who stabs him with a cross. Later, the in-crowd have a toast to Mullet's life, and Justine admits that she didn't even know who he was. The next day, the group arrives at school, and the headmaster mentions that Jez never came home the night before. Bradley threatens Nasser (James Floyd), the leader of the school's emo
clique, about removing a website he had put up about Mullet. Justine is persuaded to hang around with the popular crowd, and tells Helena that she won't be able to make it to her DVD night. She finds a teddy bear (stolen from Mullet's grave) in her locker and assumes it is from Alexis. He asks her on another date after this, which she agrees to. She goes to see Jason and he tells her that Mullet was in love with her, and hands her his suicide note. While she is reading the note, a teacher tells her that she will make a great pupil at Oxford university. In the school's recording studio, Nasser is then attacked, and sees Mullet's ghost. The ghost increases the volume of Nasser's music and forces him to listen, rendering him deaf.
Over the course of the day, the gang get more messages, and Bradley believes Jason is sending them. Jason, meanwhile is in art class, and the teacher tells everyone that the guillotine is faulty and they shouldn't touch it. A boy sent by Bradley fetches him out of class, and then Bradley and Marcus chase him into the gym, where they give him a wedgie and assault him, but are interrupted by another message, meaning Jason cannot have sent it. The sadistic PE teacher then arrives and unfairly gives Jason detention. Later, Justine confronts Jason about the note, but he denies forging
it, and breaks down in tears about the horrific bullying that caused Darren Mullet to end his life
. He tells Justine about the vicious emails and texts sent to Mullet, and also tells her about the website
that Bradley's gang created about him. When Justine asks who was responsible for Mullet's suicide, Jason fearfully glances over at the popular kids she has been hanging out with. She shows Alex the suicide note, but his friends tell her she cannot hand it into the police, because as it accuses Justine of hating him, she would implicate herself in his death. The girls decide that Helena has been sending the messages and attack her in the bathroom, with Tasha smashing her phone. After swim practice, Sophie tells Justine that she should sleep with Alexis that night, but goes back into the swimming pool, where she is attacked by Mullet's ghost, who throws her into the pool and drags her underwater where she drowns.
Later that night, Justine and Alexis sleep together, but are seen by Mullet, who tears the badge from her uniform, and re-arranges her fridge magnets, calling her a slut. Marcus is then in PE class, where he sees Mullet's ghost, and the teacher tells him to go and have a shower, just as the art teacher arrives and tells the head that they have found Sophie's body. In the shower, he is led to a mirror with writing on it, then is brutally whipped with a towel by the ghost of Mullet while nude. He manages to fight him off with a cricket bat
and heads outside, running into Helena, who accuses him of trying to rape her because he is semi naked. He manages to get outside, and is impaled upon a fence by the ghost. Later on, the gang are at Bradley's house, and they have an argument about who killed their friends, ending in Tasha and Justine getting into a fight, and Justine is thrown into the swimming pool. Bradley decides to go and dig Mullet's body up at the cemetery to prove that Mullet cannot be responsible for the murders.
Tasha becomes drunk in Bradley's car as he took her to dig up Mullet. After attempting to dig up Mullets corpse, Bradley breaks down, and begins to cry with grief over the death of his friends. Tasha consoles him, and the two have sex in the back seat of Bradley's car. Tasha sees Mullet's ghost and tries to get Bradley off her. Despite her desperate attempt to get Bradley's attention, Mullet drags Bradley out of the vehicle and rips off his penis (this was confirmed in an interview with Alex Pettyfer
) killing Bradley due to blood loss. Tasha sets free and runs through a pit-hole. She explains that she lied to Mullet telling that she loved him ever since they met each other. Mullet stands behind her with a shovel and decapitates her in the process. Justine goes home, and demands that Alex shows her the site, where she tearfully witnesses the diabolical stunts inflicted on Mullet by Bradley and his friends - including Alex (who refers to Justine as "Head Girlus Frigidus Bitchus"). Justine is even more revolted when she realizes that she was rude to Mullet because he interrupted a conversation about her going to Oxford, and ignored his pleas for her to stop the in-crowd torturing him. She tells Alexis that he is deceitful and a liar, and that their relationship is over. The next day, she arrives at the art class, where Jason painted Munch's "The Scream" painting, and tells him that she was responsible for Mullet's death. He tells her that it has been his fault, because he was scared of being bullied, so he told Bradley that Mullet fancied her. She leaves the room, and Mullet appears, and kills him by jamming two pencils up his nose and slamming his head against the table. Justine approaches Helena and tells her that she is sorry, that her friends, including Alex were all horrible. Khalillah runs over and asks her where Tasha is, but Justine tells her she doesn't care. Khalillah then gets a text message from Tasha telling her to meet her in the art room.
Before Justine can follow, she is confronted by Alexis, who tells her he is going to kill Mullet for what he has done to everyone. Justine tells him that Khalilah is in danger. Khalillah gets to the empty art room, and sees "The Scream" with her name on it, at which point Mullet puts a bag over her head, before using the guillotine to slice her hands off. She tries to call the head teacher, but he is too busy with the police, who tell him that Justine's badge has been found near the bodies of Bradley and Tasha. They get to the art room, and find Jason's and Khalillah's bodies, but are attacked by Mullet. They break free, by stabbing him in the stomach with a screwdriver and head to the common room, where Mullet follows them. Alex tries to stop him, but is stabbed in the hand with the screwdriver. Justine gets him to stop, but he begins to choke her to death. She grabs his inhaler and throws it across the room, telling Alex to smash it. He does, and the ghost begins to die. Justine tells Alex to leave, but he punches Mullet, knocking a sofa over, and finding Mullet's other inhaler which Alex had hidden from Mullet when he was alive. Mullet then uses it and then stabs Alexis in the throat with the screwdriver. As Justine cradles his body, she looks up at Mullet, disgusted and says "You know what, they were right, you do look like fucking Shrek
!" Mullet then flees just as the police arrive. Justine is then led out and into the police car seen earlier, having been arrested for the murders. She sees Mullet's ghost but then it disappears.
During the credits, there is a sequence where the foul-mouthed PE teacher is telling students off, and Mullet is shown getting ready for revenge on him.
followed by a national premiere at Cineworld
in Birmingham
on 21 May 2009. Although a US release date of July 10 had been speculated, sources are lacking. The US release come over Paramount Vantage
. The film ran on the IFC Festival 2009 on 21 September 2009.
The film's budget was under £1 million ($1.5 million).
IFC Films
released the film in the US via on-demand service in late October 2009.
from 27 reviews.
Total Film
magazine described the film as "A slasher for the Skins
generation" and goes on to say "Tormented catches the spirit of the times without being too try-hard. Quips and snogging
take precedence over scares, but its commentary on new technology’s power to intimidate is chillingly apt." and awarded the film 3 stars out of 5. Empire
called it "cynical, gruesome fun" and "consistently funny" and awarded the film 4 stars out of 5.
Sky Movies
also awarded the film 4 stars out of 5. In the news awarded the film 9 out of 10, and Real awarded the film 5 stars.
was released in the UK on 28 September 2009. Unfortunately, it -- along with the cinema release -- was heavily cut in order to get a 15 rating. The DVD included an in-vision cast and director commentary and documentaries about the making of the film. The US DVD is unrated and was released on August 31, 2010.
Alex Pettyfer
Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer is an English actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of Stormbreaker. Pettyfer was nominated for a Young Artist Award and an Empire Award for his role. He has been...
, April Pearson
April Pearson
April Janet Pearson is an English actress best known for her role as Michelle Richardson in the E4 teen drama series, Skins.-Career:Pearson joined a theatre group, located in Bristol, at just three years old...
, Dimitri Leonidas
Dimitri Leonidas
Dimitri Leonidas is a British actor, and has been acting since he was a child. For most of his childhood career including the years he was in the BBC television series Grange Hill, where he was credited as Shane Leonidas. From 2008 he started going by his birthname Dimitri Leonidas. Dimitri comes...
, Calvin Dean
Calvin Dean
Calvin Ainsley Dean is an English actor, known for portraying Darren Mullet in Tormented.-Background:Dean was born in Truro, Cornwall, England. He grew up in Polruan, a small fishing village in East Cornwall, attending Polruan Primary School and later Fowey Community College...
and newcomer Tuppence Middleton
Tuppence Middleton
Tuppence Middleton is an English actress, born in Bristol, best known for her portrayal of Justine Fielding in the 2009 horror/comedy film Tormented.-Career:...
. Directed by Jon Wright
Jon Wright
Jon Wright is a British film director. He is most known for directing the British low budget horror comedy Tormented starring Alex Pettyfer and is soon to direct his second feature film, the Irish monster movie Grabbers....
and written by newcomer Stephen Prentice
Stephen Prentice
Stephen Prentice is an English screenwriter best known for writing the low budget horror comedy Tormented. In 2010 he was short listed on the British Black List for his script Fumbling.-External links:...
, the film was released on 22 May 2009 in the UK. Tormented was produced by BBC Films
BBC Films
BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including An Education, StreetDance 3D, Fish Tank, Stage Beauty, A Cock and Bull Story, Nativity! and Match Point.It aims to make strong British films with...
, Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
, Slingshot Studios, Forward Films
Forward Films
Forward Films is a British based film production company founded by producers Tracy Brimm and Kate Myers. So far they have produced the feature films Tormented starring Alex Pettyfer and Tuppence Middleton, Skeletons starring Jason Isaacs and in 2011 they will complete filming on their third...
, and Screen West Midlands, and the music was composed by Orbital
Orbital (band)
Orbital are a British electronic dance music duo from Sevenoaks, England consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2009 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows...
member Paul Hartnoll
Paul Hartnoll
Paul Hartnoll is one of two brothers , who made up the electronic dance act Orbital.-History:...
.
Plot
The film opens with head girl Justine Fielding (Tuppence MiddletonTuppence Middleton
Tuppence Middleton is an English actress, born in Bristol, best known for her portrayal of Justine Fielding in the 2009 horror/comedy film Tormented.-Career:...
) being escorted out of Fairview High School by the police, as other pupils look on. There is then a flashback to five days earlier, where Justine is reading at the funeral of unpopular, asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
tic student Darren Mullet (Calvin Dean
Calvin Dean
Calvin Ainsley Dean is an English actor, known for portraying Darren Mullet in Tormented.-Background:Dean was born in Truro, Cornwall, England. He grew up in Polruan, a small fishing village in East Cornwall, attending Polruan Primary School and later Fowey Community College...
). She starts to talk about him, when Mullet's equally unpopular friend, Jason Banks (Olly Alexander
Olly Alexander
Olly Alexander is an English actor and script writer. Alexander acting career began in theatre plays and films with such as Summerhill and Bright Star which was nominated for an Oscar, four individual wins and another eighteen nominations...
), stands up in church and angrily calls her a hypocrite
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
because she did not really know him. He is then thrown out of church by the sadistic PE teacher. Later on, Justine is talking to her friend Helena (Mary Nighy
Mary Nighy
Mary Nighy is an English actress and film maker. She was named one of the UK Film Council's breakthrough Brits in 2005.-Work:Nighy is director of Foster Films...
) about staying in and watching a Keira Knightley DVD, when school heart-throb Alex (Dimitri Leonidas
Dimitri Leonidas
Dimitri Leonidas is a British actor, and has been acting since he was a child. For most of his childhood career including the years he was in the BBC television series Grange Hill, where he was credited as Shane Leonidas. From 2008 he started going by his birthname Dimitri Leonidas. Dimitri comes...
) decides to invite her to a party his popular friends, Bradley (Alex Pettyfer
Alex Pettyfer
Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer is an English actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of Stormbreaker. Pettyfer was nominated for a Young Artist Award and an Empire Award for his role. He has been...
), Tasha (April Pearson
April Pearson
April Janet Pearson is an English actress best known for her role as Michelle Richardson in the E4 teen drama series, Skins.-Career:Pearson joined a theatre group, located in Bristol, at just three years old...
), Khalillah (Larissa Wilson
Larissa Wilson
Larissa Hope Wilson is an English television and film actress from Bristol. She is best known for her role as Jal Fazer in the first two seasons of Skins....
), Sophie (Georgia King
Georgia King
-Career:King made her professional debut in Jane Eyre. She was nearly unable to play the role, however. "A week before the day she began filming, King felt stomach pains, then had her appendix rupture...
), and Marcus (Tom Hopper
Tom Hopper
Tom Hopper is an English actor who has appeared in various television programmmes and films such as Merlin, Doctor Who, Casualty and Tormented...
), are having. She decides to go to the party, rather than staying in with Helena.
At the party, Justine arrives and Tasha tells Jez, the DJ, to say something about her appearance. He begins to rap about her, when Alex tells him to stop, and he is thrown out of the party by Bradley. Later, Alex and Justine go somewhere quiet, and he tells her they are on a date, at which point they kiss. Bradley, Tasha, Khalillah, Marcus and Sophie all receive horrible text messages from Mullet's number. During this, someone puts on a clown costume and grabs a chainsaw, before heading up to the room where they are kissing. The figure is revealed to be Bradley, who is playing a prank on them. Jez goes to the cemetery to celebrate Mullet's death, and urinates on his grave, but is killed by an unseen figure, who stabs him with a cross. Later, the in-crowd have a toast to Mullet's life, and Justine admits that she didn't even know who he was. The next day, the group arrives at school, and the headmaster mentions that Jez never came home the night before. Bradley threatens Nasser (James Floyd), the leader of the school's emo
Emo
Emo is a style of rock music and its associated subcultureEmo may also refer to:- Businesses :* Emo , an Irish oil company and filling station chain* Emo Speedway, a racetrack in Emo, Ontario...
clique, about removing a website he had put up about Mullet. Justine is persuaded to hang around with the popular crowd, and tells Helena that she won't be able to make it to her DVD night. She finds a teddy bear (stolen from Mullet's grave) in her locker and assumes it is from Alexis. He asks her on another date after this, which she agrees to. She goes to see Jason and he tells her that Mullet was in love with her, and hands her his suicide note. While she is reading the note, a teacher tells her that she will make a great pupil at Oxford university. In the school's recording studio, Nasser is then attacked, and sees Mullet's ghost. The ghost increases the volume of Nasser's music and forces him to listen, rendering him deaf.
Over the course of the day, the gang get more messages, and Bradley believes Jason is sending them. Jason, meanwhile is in art class, and the teacher tells everyone that the guillotine is faulty and they shouldn't touch it. A boy sent by Bradley fetches him out of class, and then Bradley and Marcus chase him into the gym, where they give him a wedgie and assault him, but are interrupted by another message, meaning Jason cannot have sent it. The sadistic PE teacher then arrives and unfairly gives Jason detention. Later, Justine confronts Jason about the note, but he denies forging
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
it, and breaks down in tears about the horrific bullying that caused Darren Mullet to end his life
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. He tells Justine about the vicious emails and texts sent to Mullet, and also tells her about the website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that Bradley's gang created about him. When Justine asks who was responsible for Mullet's suicide, Jason fearfully glances over at the popular kids she has been hanging out with. She shows Alex the suicide note, but his friends tell her she cannot hand it into the police, because as it accuses Justine of hating him, she would implicate herself in his death. The girls decide that Helena has been sending the messages and attack her in the bathroom, with Tasha smashing her phone. After swim practice, Sophie tells Justine that she should sleep with Alexis that night, but goes back into the swimming pool, where she is attacked by Mullet's ghost, who throws her into the pool and drags her underwater where she drowns.
Later that night, Justine and Alexis sleep together, but are seen by Mullet, who tears the badge from her uniform, and re-arranges her fridge magnets, calling her a slut. Marcus is then in PE class, where he sees Mullet's ghost, and the teacher tells him to go and have a shower, just as the art teacher arrives and tells the head that they have found Sophie's body. In the shower, he is led to a mirror with writing on it, then is brutally whipped with a towel by the ghost of Mullet while nude. He manages to fight him off with a cricket bat
Cricket bat
A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....
and heads outside, running into Helena, who accuses him of trying to rape her because he is semi naked. He manages to get outside, and is impaled upon a fence by the ghost. Later on, the gang are at Bradley's house, and they have an argument about who killed their friends, ending in Tasha and Justine getting into a fight, and Justine is thrown into the swimming pool. Bradley decides to go and dig Mullet's body up at the cemetery to prove that Mullet cannot be responsible for the murders.
Tasha becomes drunk in Bradley's car as he took her to dig up Mullet. After attempting to dig up Mullets corpse, Bradley breaks down, and begins to cry with grief over the death of his friends. Tasha consoles him, and the two have sex in the back seat of Bradley's car. Tasha sees Mullet's ghost and tries to get Bradley off her. Despite her desperate attempt to get Bradley's attention, Mullet drags Bradley out of the vehicle and rips off his penis (this was confirmed in an interview with Alex Pettyfer
Alex Pettyfer
Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer is an English actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of Stormbreaker. Pettyfer was nominated for a Young Artist Award and an Empire Award for his role. He has been...
) killing Bradley due to blood loss. Tasha sets free and runs through a pit-hole. She explains that she lied to Mullet telling that she loved him ever since they met each other. Mullet stands behind her with a shovel and decapitates her in the process. Justine goes home, and demands that Alex shows her the site, where she tearfully witnesses the diabolical stunts inflicted on Mullet by Bradley and his friends - including Alex (who refers to Justine as "Head Girlus Frigidus Bitchus"). Justine is even more revolted when she realizes that she was rude to Mullet because he interrupted a conversation about her going to Oxford, and ignored his pleas for her to stop the in-crowd torturing him. She tells Alexis that he is deceitful and a liar, and that their relationship is over. The next day, she arrives at the art class, where Jason painted Munch's "The Scream" painting, and tells him that she was responsible for Mullet's death. He tells her that it has been his fault, because he was scared of being bullied, so he told Bradley that Mullet fancied her. She leaves the room, and Mullet appears, and kills him by jamming two pencils up his nose and slamming his head against the table. Justine approaches Helena and tells her that she is sorry, that her friends, including Alex were all horrible. Khalillah runs over and asks her where Tasha is, but Justine tells her she doesn't care. Khalillah then gets a text message from Tasha telling her to meet her in the art room.
Before Justine can follow, she is confronted by Alexis, who tells her he is going to kill Mullet for what he has done to everyone. Justine tells him that Khalilah is in danger. Khalillah gets to the empty art room, and sees "The Scream" with her name on it, at which point Mullet puts a bag over her head, before using the guillotine to slice her hands off. She tries to call the head teacher, but he is too busy with the police, who tell him that Justine's badge has been found near the bodies of Bradley and Tasha. They get to the art room, and find Jason's and Khalillah's bodies, but are attacked by Mullet. They break free, by stabbing him in the stomach with a screwdriver and head to the common room, where Mullet follows them. Alex tries to stop him, but is stabbed in the hand with the screwdriver. Justine gets him to stop, but he begins to choke her to death. She grabs his inhaler and throws it across the room, telling Alex to smash it. He does, and the ghost begins to die. Justine tells Alex to leave, but he punches Mullet, knocking a sofa over, and finding Mullet's other inhaler which Alex had hidden from Mullet when he was alive. Mullet then uses it and then stabs Alexis in the throat with the screwdriver. As Justine cradles his body, she looks up at Mullet, disgusted and says "You know what, they were right, you do look like fucking Shrek
Shrek
Shrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!...
!" Mullet then flees just as the police arrive. Justine is then led out and into the police car seen earlier, having been arrested for the murders. She sees Mullet's ghost but then it disappears.
During the credits, there is a sequence where the foul-mouthed PE teacher is telling students off, and Mullet is shown getting ready for revenge on him.
Cast
| Actor | Character | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Pettyfer Alex Pettyfer Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer is an English actor and model. He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of Stormbreaker. Pettyfer was nominated for a Young Artist Award and an Empire Award for his role. He has been... |
Bradley White | The smug, foul-mouthed leader of Fairview's popular crowd. Bradley is a cruel, heartless bully who abuses all outside his clique for sadistic glee. He later reveals a vulnerable side after Sophie and Marcus are killed, and meets his end in the cemetery after Mullet hauls him from his car and castrates him. |
| April Pearson April Pearson April Janet Pearson is an English actress best known for her role as Michelle Richardson in the E4 teen drama series, Skins.-Career:Pearson joined a theatre group, located in Bristol, at just three years old... |
Natasha Cummings | Bradley's conniving and sadistic girlfriend who is feared by many of the girls at her school. She is far cleverer and more wicked than Sophie, and is a major participant in the bullying of Darren Mullet. She is decapitated by him after he chases her into an open grave. |
| Dimitri Leonidas Dimitri Leonidas Dimitri Leonidas is a British actor, and has been acting since he was a child. For most of his childhood career including the years he was in the BBC television series Grange Hill, where he was credited as Shane Leonidas. From 2008 he started going by his birthname Dimitri Leonidas. Dimitri comes... |
Alexis | Confident and popular, Alexis is an ambivalent teen who seems to have more depth than his friends. His feelings for Justine are genuine, but he fears angering Bradley, and claims he had no choice in bullying Mullet, but it is clear he too gained joy from it. Mullet kills him with a screwdriver to the throat. |
| Georgia King Georgia King -Career:King made her professional debut in Jane Eyre. She was nearly unable to play the role, however. "A week before the day she began filming, King felt stomach pains, then had her appendix rupture... |
Sophie | Sophie is the shallow and ditzy bottle-blonde of the in-crowd, who clearly revels in her elite social status. She is dating Marcus and almost displays a compassionate side, which she quickly hides beneath a sarcastic and cunning exterior. She is the first of the bullies to die. Mullet drowns her in the school swimming pool. |
| Larissa Wilson Larissa Wilson Larissa Hope Wilson is an English television and film actress from Bristol. She is best known for her role as Jal Fazer in the first two seasons of Skins.... |
Kalillah | She is Tasha's diminutive, but extremely fierce, right hand woman. She regularly happy slapped Happy slapping Happy slapping was a fad in the UK, in which someone assaulted an unwitting victim while others recorded the assault... Mullet, who never fought back. She dies after Mullet hacks off her hands in the art room. |
| Calvin Dean Calvin Dean Calvin Ainsley Dean is an English actor, known for portraying Darren Mullet in Tormented.-Background:Dean was born in Truro, Cornwall, England. He grew up in Polruan, a small fishing village in East Cornwall, attending Polruan Primary School and later Fowey Community College... |
Darren Mullet | Mullet was an obese, awkward student who suffered from asthsma. He was nicknamed "Shrek" by his classmates, who took diabolical pleasure in torturing him verbally and physically. Mullet was deeply in love with Justine but she literally didn't even notice him. Mullet killed himself to escape the bullying, but returned from the dead to get revenge upon the popular students who made his life hell. |
| Tom Hopper Tom Hopper Tom Hopper is an English actor who has appeared in various television programmmes and films such as Merlin, Doctor Who, Casualty and Tormented... |
Marcus | Bradley's strong, athletic second-in-command, who pins the victim down whilst Bradley punches him. Marcus is dating Sophie, and is probably the only person who does not fear Bradley. He has a strange fetish for smelling girls, and affectionately tells Sophie she "smells like cabbage". Marcus fights back at the ghostly Mullet, but loses and is impaled on a fence through his head. |
| Tuppence Middleton Tuppence Middleton Tuppence Middleton is an English actress, born in Bristol, best known for her portrayal of Justine Fielding in the 2009 horror/comedy film Tormented.-Career:... |
Justine Fielding | Fairview High's angelic head girl who is unaware of the circumstances surrounding Mullet's death, but after she begins dating Alexis, the awful truth is slowly revealed to her. Justine is pretty and popular, yet seen as a snob by her peers. She gives a speech at Mullet's funeral simply to enhance her image, and later laughingly admits she didn't even know who he was. Mullet grows to hate her after she begins seeing Alexis, and she is framed for the murders. |
| Mary Nighy Mary Nighy Mary Nighy is an English actress and film maker. She was named one of the UK Film Council's breakthrough Brits in 2005.-Work:Nighy is director of Foster Films... |
Helena | Fairview's prim deputy head girl and Justine's best friend. Helena is quiet and studious and begins to resent Justine for hanging with the cool crowd of Fairview. She is later assaulted by Tasha and her friends, and ends her friendship with Justine. |
| Olly Alexander Olly Alexander Olly Alexander is an English actor and script writer. Alexander acting career began in theatre plays and films with such as Summerhill and Bright Star which was nominated for an Oscar, four individual wins and another eighteen nominations... |
Jason Banks | Mullet's only friend, and possibly the only person in school as unpopular as him. Jason seems to have a slight hint of courage, as he is the only one to denounce the school for driving Mullet to suicide, and is particularly profane in his tirade about the bullies. He admits out of guilt he was the one who revealed the truth about Mullet's love for Justine to Bradley's gang to protect himself. Outraged, Mullet kills him. |
| Sophie Wu | Mai Lee | Nasser's gothic girlfriend. |
| Hugh Mitchell Hugh Mitchell (actor) Hugh William Mitchell is an English actor, best known for playing Colin Creevey in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Mitchell also voiced the character of Colin in the video game version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.Mitchell attended Pilgrims School, Winchester from 1999 to... |
Tim | A sullen goth who hangs with Nasser. |
| James Floyd | Nasser | The ringleader of Fairview's emos. He finds death "erogenous" and criticizes Mullet for hanging himself rather than cutting his wrists. He is attacked by Mullet in the school studio, and is driven deaf after Mullet increases the music volume and forces him to listen. |
| Peter Amory Peter Amory Peter Amory is an English actor best known for playing the role of Chris Tate on ITV's soap opera Emmerdale. He was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England.-Personal life:... |
Headteacher | The inneffective head of Fairview High, who shows no concern for his students and does little to end bullying in his school. |
| Ruby Bentall Ruby Bentall Ruby Bentall is an English actress, known for playing Minnie in Lark Rise to Candleford and Mary Bennet in Lost in Austen.-Background:... |
Emily | A timid friend of Justine's. She has no dialogue in the film. |
| Geoff Bell Geoff Bell (actor) Geoff Bell is an English actor.-Career:He has appeared in many films, mostly as a cameo appearance or as a supporting role.He has appeared in Girl with a Pearl Earring, Stardust, The Long Firm, Making Waves, The Business and RocknRolla.One of his most well-known films is Green Street, where he... |
Gordon | The malicious gym teacher, who despises weaklings - Jason in particular - and openly favours the strong, confident popular kids. |
Release
The film was released in the UK on 22 May 2009. The world premiere took place on 19 May at the Empire Cinema, Leicester SquareLeicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
followed by a national premiere at Cineworld
Cineworld
Cineworld Group plc is a cinema chain operating in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Jersey. The chain consists of 78 cinemas; 76 of which are located in the UK and one each in Ireland and Jersey. It is the second-largest cinema operator in the UK with 801 screens, and the owner of...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
on 21 May 2009. Although a US release date of July 10 had been speculated, sources are lacking. The US release come over Paramount Vantage
Paramount Vantage
Paramount Vantage is the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures , charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally those with a more "art house" feel than films made and distributed by its parent company.Paramount Classics was launched in 1998 and...
. The film ran on the IFC Festival 2009 on 21 September 2009.
The film's budget was under £1 million ($1.5 million).
IFC Films
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
released the film in the US via on-demand service in late October 2009.
Reception
The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics. It holds a 78% rating and an average rating of 6.0 on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
from 27 reviews.
Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
magazine described the film as "A slasher for the Skins
Skins (TV series)
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
generation" and goes on to say "Tormented catches the spirit of the times without being too try-hard. Quips and snogging
French kiss
A French kiss is a kiss in which one participant's tongue touches the partner's lips or tongue and usually enters his or her mouth. A French kiss is a slow passionate kiss which is usually considered intimate, romantic, erotic or sexual...
take precedence over scares, but its commentary on new technology’s power to intimidate is chillingly apt." and awarded the film 3 stars out of 5. Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
called it "cynical, gruesome fun" and "consistently funny" and awarded the film 4 stars out of 5.
Sky Movies
Sky Movies
Sky Movies is the collective name for the premium subscription television movie channels operated by Sky Television, and later British Sky Broadcasting. It has around 5 million subscribers, via satellite, cable and IPTV in the UK and Ireland...
also awarded the film 4 stars out of 5. In the news awarded the film 9 out of 10, and Real awarded the film 5 stars.
Home media
The DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
was released in the UK on 28 September 2009. Unfortunately, it -- along with the cinema release -- was heavily cut in order to get a 15 rating. The DVD included an in-vision cast and director commentary and documentaries about the making of the film. The US DVD is unrated and was released on August 31, 2010.