A South Australian man who kidnapped a woman in a "horror movie" ordeal and forced her to dig her own grave has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

The 42-year-old man was charged with 12 offences over the ordeal in late 2015, including aggravated charges of kidnapping, assault, causing harm with intent, as well as false imprisonment and three counts of rape.

He pleaded guilty to three of the charges earlier this year while a District Court jury found him guilty of seven offences and acquitted him of one count of oral rape.

District Court Judge Paul Rice said the charges to which the man admitted were all captured in a video he filmed on his phone, which showed the victim's suffering.

"The vision is very graphic and brutal and you implicate yourself to such an extent that defending those counts would be close to futile," Judge Rice said.

The court heard the woman, who lived with the man for a short period of time after meeting through a mutual friend, was subjected to torture — the likes of which are only seen in horror movies.

It also heard the man had another mutual friend drop the woman at the Mannum waterfalls carpark under false pretences where he was waiting.

"You equipped yourself with the means of restraining and kidnapping the victim, you took elastic gloves, duct tape, handcuffs and a taser," Judge Rice said.

The judge said the man got out of his car, put his gloves on and said "you're dead bitch".

"You grabbed her and slapped her hard to the face ... she was forced into your car and you drove off with her," he said.

"By that stage you had also handcuffed her and she was screaming.

"That was only the beginning of your cruelty and violence to her, her worst nightmare had only just begun."

Woman driven to remote location

The man tasered the woman twice and drove her to a remote location off a dirt road outside of Mannum.

Once there, she was chained to a tree, assaulted, raped and forced to dig her own grave in the dirt.

"You said 'you're digging your grave bitch'," Judge Rice said.

"You chose to record on your mobile phone a film of her chained to a tree, digging her grave, being abused, hit, humiliated and tormented by you and then tasered."

The court heard the torture continued back at the man's home where the woman was found by police 20 hours after she was kidnapped.

Police were contacted by one of the man's friends after he sent them a photo of the woman chained up in his lounge room.

The woman was kidnapped from a carpark near Mannum in South Australia's Murraylands region. ( Supplied: SA Courts )

The woman sustained severe injuries from the ordeal including a fractured eye socket.

"Your actions were depraved and a matter of great concern for your rehabilitation," Judge Rice said. "You seemed to enjoy humiliating her and causing her pain."

Attack motivated by revenge

The court heard the attack was motivated by revenge over the man's belief the woman owed him money and because he was angry with her about her drug use.

"Whatever you may have thought of her, she did not deserve this from you to teach her a lesson about her drug taking or otherwise," Judge Rice said.

Judge Rice said the man had given evidence at the trial but had ended up being one of the best witnesses for the prosecution after he told the jury he was "the smartest person in the courtroom".

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with a non-parole period of 15 years.