Streaming Sleepers: In A WOMAN SCORNED, The Hunted Becomes The Avenging Hunter
A Woman Scorned is now available on Digital from Uncork’d Entertainment
A Woman Scorned marks another revisit for this critic to the work of Rebecca J. Matthews who I’ve previously critiqued in their 2022 co-directorial effort, The Gardener, starring actor and Charles Bronson facsimile, Robert Bronzi. Matthew’s works are still new to me and as their resumé behind the lens is a mix of both solo and paired-filmmaking credits with other directors, with their latest, A Woman Scorned, added to the latter.
Matthews shares the helm with actor/director Michael Hoad (Trophy Wife) from a script by Anya Vallentin. Hoad has also worked with Matthews on several occasions for previous titles, including The Gardener where he also served as fight choreographer for which he also wears the hat here, as well as appears in a small role we meet later in the film’s second half. I won’t say to which degree so as to keep the suspense going as much as possible, barring what anyone else says as the film has just been released in the UK on Prime Video.
In the meantime, we meet backpacking extrovert Laura (Hannah Pauley), and her polar opposite sister Jas (Megan Purvis), absconding to the British countryside for a cabin getaway. What starts out as a rigorous and otherwise theraputic escapade segues into a nightmaring reality when Jas arrives back from an errand run only to find her sister murdered in cold blood. With the killers only a short walking distance away, Jas, still tormented by her own past, is forced to face her trauma head on, turning her pain into an insatiable need for vengeance.
The first ten minutes or so of A Woman Scorned serves as a small exploration into Jas and Laura. There isn’t much visual aid here beyond the core exchange between the two sisters in a moment where Laura expresses pride in Jas for getting out of what they allude to was a likely unsavory relationship. Jas even mentions that she’s begun taking lessons in self-defense, which aptly foundates the rest of the storied thrills and spills that follow.
It’s here where A Woman Scorned begins taking its feminist survival themes and turning them delightfully into a palpable revenge thriller with slasher aesthetics. Well into the film’s intense uptick in tone, Jas starts skewering throats and hatcheting away at the men responsible, armed with a chainsaw and as many knives as she can pack in, and a head full of rage. It’s only a matter of time before the gang’s ringleader, Randy (Aaron-James North), catches wind of the menacing sister in the midst of her bloodbath and summons a handful of reinforcements to help pick up where the bodies of Randy’s men have left off.
Matthews and Hoad craft a lean, appetizing thriller ripe for horror and revenge fans. Purvis is a force to be reckoned with as a one-woman army in her own unrelenting fight for survival, opposite North whose role as the rapacious Randy is someone you can’t wait to see get their just desserts.
I would’ve loved to have seen more done, scriptwise, to further peel back and profile what makes Jas tick. The film also leaves a little room for improvement in terms of one visual effect shot which I think any viewer might catch onto, although for whatever shortcomings might catch your eye in any indie film, you can’t argue against a good time. To its credit, that’s what A Woman Scorned delivers.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
