31 Films for Halloween, #7: Avenged (2013)

This R&R ("Rape & Revenge") flick was originally called "Savaged", but that title irked some people, since it's based on the corpse being possessed by the spirit of a Native American spirit of vengeance. So now it's called "Avenged" (a title much less snappy, if less offensive).  

Most of the films I'm recommending in this series are pretty mellow. Some are "comfort horror", but most are just spooky, or scary, or full of fairly "impersonal" murders.

Avenged, however, has ... unpleasantness.  Even for an R&R (which often show you the brutality so that you can feel justified in enjoying the revenge), it's got some patches that are tough to watch, so be forewarned.

But the conceit is so darned fantastic! Dying after her ordeal, the protagonist can't really be saved by the kindly Native American spiritualist who encounters her. BUT ... her dying body CAN be the vessel for the unsettled spirit of a long-dead native warrior, who, like her, has a score to settle.

And oh boy do the spirit and the dead girl combine to make quite a team.

The film has three hooks

"Hooks" may not have been the best word choice here.

that make it unique, watchable, and memorable.

First, the reanimated dead girl can't speak. It's a plot point.

Second, she is BOTH herself AND the warrior spirit combined, which leads to this "little blonde woman" fashioning makeshift native-style weapons out of odds and ends and BRUTALLY ending people with those weapons.

I would advise you not to get too attached to any of these fellows, but there's very chance of it.

And,

Here's the tricky part.

HER CORPSE IS STILL ROTTING.

Yes, in a twist that's perfectly reasonable, but which nearly NEVER happens in any film, a reanimated corpse is... still a corpse.  And it's decomposing.  Her ooey, gooey, rich and chewy insides are barely being contained by her golden flaky, tender cakey outside, and she has increasing difficulty wrapping the inside in the outside.

It adds both urgency and challenge to the task of taking revenge. R&R films usually given their protagonist time to plot and then exact their revenge slowly. But in "Avenged", the challenge of LITERALLY holding herself together in time to complete her mission is even more daunting than any external opposition she faces.  

It's exciting, thoughtful, brutal, and quite sad.  Enjoy it.