Film critic Jim Hemphill (FILM QUARTERLY, AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, DARKWORLDS.COM) is currently in post-production on his first film as writer-director, a thriller entitled BAD REPUTATION. Hemphill, a devoted fan of 1970's horror films, conceived of the picture as a contemporary version of notorious revenge opuses like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT as well as an homage to CARRIE and TERROR TRAIN, two of his all-time favorite movies.

The film tells the story of Michelle Rosen, a shy high school student who is brutally assaulted at a party by several popular boys. Her anguish continues at school when the girlfriends of her attackers blame Michelle for "seducing" their men--they label Michelle the "school slut" and make her life a living hell until Michelle figures out a way to use her new reputation against her tormentors before killing them off one by one. While the film is filled with references to other horror movies and icons (there are characters named after genre auteurs Stephanie Rothman and Ken Wiederhorn, for example), the movie is more than simply a pastiche.

"In working in the tradition of '70s horror, I wanted to bring back the social and political dimensions that I think have been lacking in some of the recent American horror movies," Hemphill says. "The early low budget thrillers by people like Wes Craven and Larry Cohen examined the contradictions and hypocrisies of American life in a witty and powerful manner, and I'd like to think that BAD REPUTATION follows in this tradition by touching on the double standards and mixed messages about sexuality that assault today's teenagers." The social commentary in BAD REPUTATION is firmly placed within the context of a lean, mean, and darkly comic teen revenge movie, but there's an emotional component to it all as well.

"I want audiences to identify with Michelle the way they did with Carrie White, so that the movie's ultimately moving as well as funny and scary," Hemphill says. He feels he achieved this goal thanks to the strong performances by Angelique Hennessy (BOSTON PUBLIC, DEADLY CULTURE), Jerad Anderson (E.R.), USC theater school grad Danielle Noble, and the other actors in a uniformly excellent cast.

BAD REPUTATION will be hitting the film festival circuit in the second half of 2005.