Savaged

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.

From seeing the trailer of this film I thought it was going to be one of those fun slasher gore films. In a way it was but it could have had more of that stuff in it. To me this film was like a knock off of "The Crow", "I Spit On Your Grave", and a little "Kill Bill". With that being said, it did have it's own little twists that set it apart from others in it's genre. One thing that set it apart from the other films like it was the high drama content written in it. The relationship between Zoe (Amanda Adrienne) and Dane (Marc Anthony Samuel) played a big part in making this film what it was and I liked that. If this film just had a little more action, slashing, and gore in it I think it would have been almost perfect.

A girl driving out in th CA desert, oh she's at the Grand Canyon! I lvoe the Grand Canyon! Weird tho because after they show a Grand Canyon sign I can still tell she's driving in CA. Ruh roh and after she witnesses a guy being rundown, she helps him into her car. But the hit and runners come back and turn that hit and run into a murder.

Wow, and that one dude is a heck of a shot at long distance with a pistol. The men scoop her up and take her to a house. And it appears they take some time for a bit of rape. Oh I just noticed this movie had a title change. Well that's a minus right there. We don't like title changes.

And it's a shame, because the bad men kill the poor deaf girl. Oh seriously she lived? Oh well there's one of those unbelievable plot points. Oh no. And then apparently a spirit comes back to possess her body? So confusing!

LOL okay when she guts the cop, that was fun. +1 Star. Oh and the close up archery? +1 Star!

And really at this point we're back at a 5/10. The rest of the movie, including the end, is a bunch of violence that really gets kind of boring since you know how it is going to end.

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!

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!