Written and directed by Jennifer E. Montgomery, co-written by Andrew Davis, a young woman awakens from a coma grievously injured, memory fractured, her husband arrested. But as she puts together the pieces of her past, she starts to question her own actions — and her perception of reality. Starring: Simone Ashley, Austin Stowell, Suraj Sharma, Mojean Aria, Amol Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Bevin Bru and Niya Brahmbhatt.
If you’re heading into This Tempting Madness purely as a fan of Simone Ashley, then you’ll probably enjoy it more than most. Especially because it feels like a lot of shot choices are set up specifically to marvel at her looks and flawless skin, though surprisingly not in a sleazy or exploitative way, which is a fairly refreshing change of pace. She also gives a solid performance, there’s not a great deal to really sink her teeth into with this role, but she makes it her own. There was the potential for something much more twisted or dark, and it would have been really interesting to see how she’d handle that challenge. This gives us a little taste and definitely piques the interest of seeing Ashley take on a horror flick.
For the most part, This Tempting Madness simply follows the formula, the classic husband-wife, who’s telling the truth? What really happens behind closed doors? It’s a familiar style of entertainment which will work for some and not others. Part of the issue is the progression, its story is fairly transparent early on so there aren’t many places for it to go, it’s pretty much inevitable. It does stray from the playbook a little by adding some body horror touches, they don’t truly fit in and can simply feel like an attempt to up the suspense or tension, to make up for where it’s lacking in other elements.
In another familiar way it does also like to ignore reality and logic, you will have to suspend your disbelief quite a lot to enjoy this one. It feels like it’s trying to throwback to Soderbergh’s Unsane by constantly attempting to mess with reality, but it doesn’t work very well, it gets tiresome, and that film in itself is a love it or hate it affair. Ultimately, while Austin Stowell was a great choice as the husband, he fits the bill for a potentially abusive, controlling, image-obsessed person very well. Suraj Sharma also nicely adds some suspicion but ultimately, This Tempting Madness is a forgone conclusion.
This Tempting Madness is one of those films that’s not made for everyone, it will work for a specific fanbase who love this type of thriller that was birthed by people like Ashley Judd in the 1990s, it serves a purpose. It doesn’t move well, it gets stuck in what feels like the same moment, never truly moving forward until the very end. It simply doesn’t have enough to reveal to make it at least come to a satisfying conclusion after wading through all of its flashbacks and faulty memory. Although, it does deserve credit for letting Simone Ashley stray over to the dark side a little, and hopefully we’ll see more of that from her in the future. Currently the closest thing in her upcoming work is a 2-episode stint in the next series of Only Murders in the Building.
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