I haven’t come across many films this year that I have noted as a possible “best of 2015″ flick. Until I took a look at writer / director Michael S. Ojeda film AVENGED. Previously titled Savaged the film follows the mold of the revenge film but cleverly throws in a supernatural spin that not only works, but works very well.

Zoe (Amanda Adrienne) is a twenty something moving across the country in her deceased dad’s GTO to move in with her finance’. Zoe is not an ordinary girl, she is a deaf-mute, but has a beautiful kindness about her. When she stops in the New Mexico desert to help a man in the road she comes across a group of white rednecks that hunt and kill Indians in the area. The group abducts her for entertainment purposes. The leader of the clan informs Zoe at one point that his heritage spans several generations of hunting and killing Indians. He even has a trophy of Indian skulls. One in particular is of a Chief that tried to trick is family into a truce. After torturing and raping Zoe, they end up killing her. A Medicine man finds her body and attents to bring her back, but the spirit of the Chief enters her body and that’s when the revenge killing spree ensues. Not only is Zoe getting retribution by killing these guys, but the Chief is getting retribution for all his people that have been slain at the hands of this family.

What makes this film work so well is it gives Zoe a logical reason why she can take on a group of strong, and end the end, heavily armed men. She is possessed. Which opens the door for Ojeda to do whatever the hell he wants with the character, she has extreme powers, can fight like a martial artist, can pull entrails out of someone, she is an expert with a bow, and she’s doing all this while slowly decomposing over the course of the film.

The film has some amazingly fun gore effects, edge of your seat action sequences, and a beautiful cinematic look that is not normally seen in this type of film. Ojeda is certainly a filmmaker to keep an eye on, Avenged is his first feature and he’s just getting warmed up.

Horror fans, gore fans, revenge fans, and action fans could do a lot worse than checking this one out. I am 100% going to be picking this one up on DVD when it comes out, as should everyone of you!

 

 

AVENGED (2013) Review: A Stylistic Spin On The Revenge Film