Savaged (2015)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Blistering performances.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Not too shabby at all, for what one can expect from a low budget thriller/horror. The bar has been perennially (though rarely) set high by classics like Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and others. I could not take my eyes away from this movie. The direction and cinematography are excellent. Bonus points for accurate historical references, as well as for truly visceral gore. I regret to have to say though that the movie didn't make much headway for how Native Americans are typically portrayed on film.

Such a hidden gem! It is hard to believe that good horror movies like this pass by not being noticed by the majority of the genre fans. Great actors and really well done make-up effects. Despite the main plot not being so original (it could easily be named "I Spit on Your Grave 4: Indian Vengeance" LOL - which I do not intend to mean something bad, as I LOVE the "Spit on your Grave" films), there is a supernatural element added to this one and it only makes the story stronger and more interesting. The only thing that could be considered a "flaw" are some of the special effects, but the movie altogether is so amazing that even the little poor effects cannot take away any of the greatness that "Savaged" has to offer in its 95 minutes.

I usually try not to compare one movie to another in a review. After having seen so many movies it becomes too easy and every review would be a comparison to one or more other movies. With that said, I have to compare this movie to "I Spit On Your Grave" due to the overwhelming similarity. If you've seen "I Spit On Your Grave" then you've seen a much better version of "Avenged." "Avenged" stars Amanda Adrienne playing Zoe, a deaf young lady crossing the country to live with her fiancée. On the road to her final destination she was brutally attacked by a group of raging racists. They thought she was dead until they were facing her wrath.Who doesn't love a good tale of revenge? There's little better than seeing an oppressed person having the last laugh. We got to see that here but not without some flaws. Where this movie fell short was with making the antagonists so extremely bigoted and ignorant that they attacked and killed with total disregard and not the least bit of fear of the law. I don't doubt that such people exist, but these inbred yokels actually saved souvenirs of their purging the Earth of "squaws" and "Apaches".Of course I wanted them dead as much as the next guy, but what message is the movie really sending when their undoing comes at the hands of a wronged white woman? Not one of the many Native Indians assailed by this band of bigots could have exacted revenge? Were their deaths not worthy of a merciless vengeance? To further emphasize or garner more sympathy for Zoe's plight, she was deaf and she was engaged to a Black man. So, we witnessed a troop of trash viciously assault a pretty, young, white woman that was also handicapped. How evil must you be? And her engagement to a man of color allowed us to hear the visceral hate they had towards Blacks as they maliciously called her beloved the "N" word. As if to convey: if you didn't think they were insanely racist before when they were killing Native Indians, listen to how much they hate Black people.Even with these exaggerations I enjoyed the movie. Amanda Adrienne did an excellent job. She played a deaf person so well I had to look her up to find out if she really was deaf. Even the method in which she spoke when she tried to speak was that of a deaf person. I can appreciate a movie being bold enough to star a deaf character. It's rare, it's risky and it worked.

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.