Savaged

Sometimes a smaller budget puts out a better film. Amanda Adrienne Smith did a splendid job, as did all of the characters involved in the making of this film. Rod Rowland came through the whole thing unscathed...for the most part anyway and kept the character true to form all the way through. The nasty crew that he kept company with performed so well that I loved to see them depart the ways they did. The western setting left me feeling for our star as she was so helpless in the vast expanses. To see the outcome of the movie was both gratifying and a little disappointing... no spoiler alert. MR. ROWLAND, you got what you deserve and I'll be glad to give you chainsaw lessons. LOL!

This low-budget supernatural action horror film is proof that you don't need a billion dollars to make a good, enjoyable, and high-end movie - worth watching on the big screen...

I've watched the movie during the "Screamfest" horror film festival in LA, 2013, and although I had no expectations, I was surprised by the quality of the film...

Director Michael S. Ojeda has done beautiful work - with a wonderful little tale of revenge that turns epic, artistic shots and mise-en- scene, which fit perfectly in the slasher-genre, great actor-directing, fluent and precise editing, and excellent special effects...

In my opinion, having done most of the pre-production and post- production work on his own - definitely entitles Ojeda as being a new generation "Auteur-Director"...

The cast was awesome, each and everyone of them, and the producers have done great work - utilizing whatever budget they managed to scrape into making this slasher a great movie...

Avenged is nothing more than a decent low budget revenge horror film. That's fine. I like this stuff. I don't even care if it's a ripoff of "I Spit on Your Grave," with Native American supernatural forces mixed in. I've always found that stuff to be hokey, but I'll go along for the ride. The story is quite familiar, but who cares, it's cheap horror. The characters are reasonably well developed for this genre, although the acting is spotty enough to knock the movie down a peg. The art direction is mostly good and the lighting is effective. The cinematography is fairly good most of the time, but too often, seriously betrays the film's low budget. The gore effects and CGI are good enough, considering. I could have enjoyed the movie and given it 4 stars for being above average and reasonably entertaining. But I'd bet my right eye that the 5 star reviews (9-10 stars on IMDb) are written by people with some connection to the filmmaker. This movie is just too flawed, in really big, obvious ways for that many people to love it that much. So watch it if you want, but I'd recommend lowering your expectation if you don't want to feel cheated at the end, as I and most of the honest reviewer were.

Story wise you're not going to get anything too exceptional, though the "touch" (or twist if you want to call it that), might be appealing to some. Other than that, you do have a lot of criticism, if you want to look at it that way, about America in general. Which is a bold move, considering that is the market this is supposed to make money in that country.

On the other hand, it's obvious that it tries to leave old thinking behind and is about tolerating. The whole "native" revenge thing is convoluted though, not that you'd expect a movie like this to make much sense anyway. The effects are pretty decent for a movie with a budget limitation as this one had.

Even ideas that were used and used can still make a small impact if executed correctly. Exactly the case with "Savaged" where you'll see some bad effects sometimes, or better say cheap ones, a plot that was used before a few number of times, but you will also see heart, a director that wanted to make a good movie, actors that were happy to play their role, all of these resulting into a good B horror.

It has some elements from "Contracted", some from "Freakdog" or maybe "The crow", anyway it was a fun ride, especially that they decided to limit the torture screen of the girl and show more of her vengeance. Maybe it lasted a tad bit more than it should have, but probably wanted to offer some deepness to it all.

So all in all, "Savaged" is an OK movie for many horror fans out there, not limited to one exact category, which is a good thing. So whoever you are and whatever your tastes are, you should give this one a try. Especially for those looking for a nice indie movie!