Avenged (2013) (aka: Savaged) starring Amanda Adrienne, Tom Ardavany, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Ernie Charles directed by Michael S. Ojeda Movie Review

Avenged (2013)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Amanda Adrienne in Avenged (2013) (aka: Savaged)

Righting a Wrong

In her late father's prized GTO, the hearing impaired Zoe (Amanda Adrienne) travels across the South West to move in with her boyfriend when she comes across a gang of rednecks murdering a couple of native boys. Her attempts to stop it and save a boy only results in her own capture and brutal torture by the red necks who leave her for dead in a shallow grave. Discovered by an Indian shaman who attempts to save her, instead the spirit of an ancient Apache brave takes control of her and with her body falling apart sets about getting revenge on every one of those responsible for her death as well as the murder of other natives.

Grindhouse movies and 70s exploitation have never been near the top of my must watch list, every time I've watched them I have been left under whelmed and feeling that they only really worked for those who enjoyed them back in the 70s. But then there are the modern takes on grindhouse and exploitation and strangely that is another matter as these movies with their more graphic violence and often better production values entertain, well if entertain is the right word. That brings me to "Avenged", also known as "Savaged" as it is a modern exploitation style movie and a surprisingly decent one at that.

The key to why "Avenged" works is that it keeps things simple and never tries to over complicate matters. Woman tries to help a native kid, killed by some extreme rednecks, and then a warrior spirit takes over her dead body to get revenge. It does toss in some embellishments with one of the rednecks revelling in the murder of Native Americans years ago but it is simply a revenge movie and a violent one at that. There is an embellishment involving Zoe being hearing impaired which leaves me a little perplexed but generally keeps things simple.

It also keeps things extreme because it paints the locals as extremely racist to make the extreme violence work as with out the extreme stereotype the violence of someone getting their intestines yanked out would seem ridiculously over the top, yes more over the top than that clearly is.

What this all boils down to is that "Avenged" is simply an extreme movie, but it does things right by keeping it simple and making it all about the revenge violence of an apache warrior in a dead woman's body rather than trying to be clever.


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