TORMENTED (15).

Horror/Comedy/Romance. Tuppence Middleton, Alex Pettyfer, Tom Hopper, Dimitri Leonidas, Larissa Wilson, Georgia King, April Pearson, Calvin Dean. Director: Jon Wright.

JON Wright directs a tongue-in-cheek horror set in a British comprehensive school where a gang of abusive students gets its just desserts at the hands of a most unlikely avenger.

Not a demented dinner lady, fed up with gripes about her chicken cobbler, but the spectre of a bullied boy, who skulks in classrooms, toilets and corridors Unfortunately, the gore – and there is plenty, including some bloodthirsty dismemberment – sits uncomfortably next to the largely intentional giggles.

Screenwriter Stephen Prentice fails to seamlessly blend the two strands, spinning a low-budget, predictable yarn in which characters of dubious morals are marked for death before the first clumsy line of dialogue trips off their pierced tongues.

Academically-blessed head girl Justine (Middleton) leads the funeral tributes to classmate Darren Mullet (Dean), unaware of the circumstances surrounding his death.

The truth emerges, little by little, when teenager charmer Alexis (Leonidas) makes romantic overtures to Justine and introduces her to the other members of his gang: Bradley (Pettyfer) and Marcus (Hopper), two of the most popular guys in school; Khalillah (Wilson), Sophie (King) and Tasha (Pearson).

At first, the cool kids are wary of pretty-yet-aloof Justine. Yet they soon let their guard down and Justine surmises that Bradley, Marcus and co bullied Darren to his grave.

Justine is horrified when Darren's murderous ghost targets the students who made his life a misery, leaving blood and entrails in his wake.

Little does the head girl realise she too played a part in Darren’s death.

Opening with a central character being hauled out of school, spattered in blood, Tormented takes perverse pleasure in slaughtering its protagonists.

One uncouth fellow, who doesn’t think twice about urinating on graves in the local churchyard, is swiftly dispatched with a shovel.

Can we dig it? Well, he certainly does, six feet under.

Evidently, the students (three of whom have appeared in Channel 4’s Skins) have never seen the Scream series or any number of Asian horror films festooned with ghoulies, which clearly set out the guidelines to surviving an otherworldly attack.

Unrealistic prosthetics and an absence of any scares dull the horror, while humour settles for the puerile.