You have to respect films that are super indie and made with a lot of heart. Feral Female, written and directed by Jared Masters, is one such movie. It’s clear that this production was a labor of love, likely from everyone involved. It’s that sort of indie spirit that makes up for the film’s shoestring budget and some of its warts. The DIY aesthetic makes this an enjoyable horror comedy for what it is.

The film stars Kate Lý Johnston as, well, a feral woman. She prowls and lurks around the hillside of Los Angeles, killing one person after the other. Nearly everyone she murders or severely injures is super annoying. This includes social media influencers, graffiti artists, and a few folks with stars in their eyes. Heck, viewers will likely cheer for Johnston’s character, who wears a few scraps of dirtied and tattered clothing and nothing else, to bite off another finger or maim another wannabe Hollywood starlet. Few victims warrant remorse. In that regard, the feral woman is a woman worth cheering.

This isn’t just an indie creature feature with no plot, however. There are some narrative threads. The undomesticated woman did come from a family, and her backstory is shared via a sibling who tries to track her down and domesticate her, so they can at least have each other. Of course, that doesn’t quite go as planned, but at least viewers learn about the woman’s backstory and how she ended up in such a situation.

Additionally, much of the film revolves around Masters’ character Nigel B. Shearing, an exotic animal hunter called in to try to capture the feral woman. In fact, Masters takes up a lot of screentime. He’s funny for a majority of the film, but by the end, his excessive screen time grows tiresome. Still, Masters has written and directed over a dozen feature films, and his TV credits include SNL and Ugly Betty, so he knows how to craft a joke. Some of the humor in this film really, really works.

For instance, Johnston also plays an influencer. Her main character, the feral woman, bites off the finger of her influencer character. In a later scene, the influencer bemoans that her girlfriend, Raya (Sophia Gabrielle), wants to dump her after she was attacked and had her finger chewed off. It’s a great scene that elevates the film’s overall absurdity.

It’s evident the cast and crew made this film because they simply wanted to make it. Likely, they had a heck of a lot of fun doing it. While Feral Woman operates on a tiny budget, a lot of the jokes land and there are some gruesome kills. Fueling this feature is a DIY indie spirit that makes up for the rough-around-the edges aesthetic and acting.