Scorned 2

Happily married to her former therapist, Dr. Mark Foley (Myles O'Brien), Amanda Foley (Tane McClure) is haunted by nightmares about a period in her past that she cannot remember. Put under hypnosis by her therapist, Mark's colleague, Dr. Robert Greenfield (John McCook), Amanda recalls her past: after the suicide of her first husband, she sought vengeance on the family of Alex Weston (Andrew Stevens), the man that she believed was responsible. After seducing both Alex and his young son Robey (Michael Arenz), she ran off with Robey to college and then murdered him, hiding the body. Shocked by this knowledge, she runs to Mark's office, only to find him in flagrante with student Cynthia Meadows (Wendy Schumacher). She leaves without being seen and without knowing that Mark only gave into Cynthia's persistent advances in a moment of weakness.

In the meantime, Alex Weston and his wife have hired a detective to search for their missing son. Amanda sees them speaking to Greenfield, and realizes they will soon find her. Although Mark regrets his dalliance with Cynthia, the girl won't let him alone, and Amanda mistakenly assumes they are having a protracted affair. Amanda plots her revenge, beginning by ruining Cynthia's academic, social, and family life. When she visits Greenfield just as he is opening a parcel from the Westons that contains information about her, Amanda panics and stabs him to death with a letter opener. She murders Weston and his wife, and then kills Cynthia at her house. Having realized that Amanda is up to no good, Mark intercepts her at Cynthia's, where she knocks him unconscious. He awakes to find himself under arrest: Amanda has carefully framed him for the murders of Cynthia and Greenfield. Amanda drives away to a new life.

SCORNED 2 moves with sufficient velocity to override its major deficiency, Amanda's unclear motivations and intentions. The flashback scenes recreating scenes from 1994's SCORNED (where the character was played by Shannon Tweed) are too sketchy for viewers who haven't seen (or can't remember) the original: does Amanda deserve our sympathy, or is she simply psychotic? And it's never clear how carefully Amanda has plotted her revenge--unlike SCORNED, many of her actions seem to be taken impulsively. That's the kind of thing that matters in a cat-and-mouse thriller like this. Still, the Shannon Tweed role is ably handled by Tane McClure, a striking blonde with something of Mary Woronov feral elegance (in contrast to her co-star, sex kitten Wendy Schumacher, a bargain basement Drew Barrymore). (Violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations, adult situations, profanity.) leave a comment