Savaged

I recently watched Avenged (2013) on Prime. The storyline follows a def girl who is dragged into the desert and beaten, raped, murdered and buried. An Apache spirit helps her return to the world of the living to seek revenge.

This picture is directed by Michael S. Ojeda (The Russian Bride) and stars Amanda Adrienne Smith (Dreams of Solace), Marc Anthony Samuel (Say Uncle), Rodney Rowland (The Walking Dead), John Charles Meyer (The Millennium Bug).

This isn't a good movie, but I enjoyed it way more than I anticipated. The acting and dialogue are painfully bad, and the cinematography is inconsistent. The storyline is an obvious knockoff of "I Spit on Your Grave." However, the kill and gore are excellent. I loved the diverse methods the kills were executed. There's a great use of a pool stick that's a must see and fun use of human intestines. There's also a cool use of a muscle car.

In conclusion, Avenged is a fun revenge picture that isn't great but is worth a watch. I would score this a 5.5/10 and only recommend it if you're looking for something different.

Sweet, deaf girl is randomly savaged to death by a bunch of desert yahoos. But the spirit of another victim revives her corpse, and the revenge is unstoppable.

Moral stuff really bores me and I don't much like revengers, but it's a good 'un. This time we get into over-the-top supernatural gore, with good style and sympathetic characters, plus touches of humour.

The story is the usual nonsense of suburban superior to rural (with a dose of US racial prejudice), but I liked almost everything – direction, editing, cinematog, pace & action, with a plot that winds up steadily. Some decent real-effect gore, restrained on the sex, scent of cheese on the CGI.

Acting is good, with the best line: "My, oh my – something dead has been living in here." Dialogue gets heavy in a bloated end sequence with lots of exposition. The only other drawback is the over-use of music – often perfect, but let me figure it out for myself.

Overall, a moral story so not a true horror, but well told.

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!

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...