The Betrayed

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Amanda Gusack directs. Roger Vernon behind the camera. Deborah Lurie scores. Matthew Booth cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Released 18 years ago.
• 3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 4Directed by Amanda Gusack, shot by Roger Vernon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Deborah Lurie. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Matthew Booth shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Melissa George and Oded Fehr and Christian Campbell carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "What she doesn't know could kill her.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt1074191 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Only 70 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
• 11Classified under 9 themes, including "kidnapping", "revelation", "flashback", "murder".

The technical file

Cinematography

Roger Vernon

Original score

Deborah Lurie

Editing

Matthew Booth

Production design

Geoff Wallace

Costume design

Allisa Swanson

Stunt coordinator

Randy Lee

Runtime

98 min · 1h 38m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$3,500,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

The Betrayed (2008) ↗

Also by

Amanda Gusack

• 
  In Memorium

  2005 · ★ 4.1

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Betrayed 2008 trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Dr Nostromo2026-05-29
  ★ 7/10

  70/100 A woman and her son are kidnapped and told they'll die if they don't tell them where her husband has hidden $40 mil and she doesn't have a clue. The film has some logic issues and it's rather contrived at times - mostly to give it padding - but it also has Melissa George & Oded Fehr and, as a big fan of both, they did a wonderful job and pulled this off rather nicely. The last 30 mins was tense with lots of twists and turns and, despite it's issues, it all played out quite well. Really good psychological thriller if you don't expect too much and just roll with it. -- DrNostromo.com

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

  US

Key crew

• EditorMatthew Booth
• Costume DesignAllisa Swanson
• Production DesignGeoff Wallace
• Art DirectionSandra Nieuwenhuijsen
• Set DecorationSandy Walker
• Executive ProducerVicki Sotheran
• ProducerVincent Garcia Newman
• Co-ProducerChris Scotten
• CastingPaul Weber
• Executive ProducerMeredith Freeman
• Executive ProducerLydia Cedrone
• Stunt CoordinatorRandy Lee

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• kidnapping
• revelation
• flashback
• murder
• theft
• trust
• criminal
• warehouse
• psycho

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2008-09-27R

Also known as

International titles

• TraicionadaES
• Le prix de la trahisonFR