Standing ovation! It's very easy to forget that horror movies can contain great acting and original storylines. I'm not sure how this juggernaut of a movie eluded me for seven years but better late than never.
Set in the Western Sierra Nevada Mountains during the 19th century, Guy Pierce plays a recently promoted captain of a small military outpost. A desperate, disheveled man named F.W. (played brilliantly by Robert Carlisle) stumbles into the camp and tells his horrifying tale of survival in the wilderness. The group that he was traveling with got lost and was forced to live in a cave for three months without rations. After the first member died of starvation, the others had no choice but to use his body as sustenance for the sake of their own survival. He then explains how one member of the party went crazy and murdered the other companions. F.W. narrowly escaped and miraculously found the military base.
Before a search party sets out to recover bodies and apprehend the killer, a Native American officer details his tribe's legend of the cannibal. Eating humans, he explains, provides mystical recuperative powers but the ensuing thirst for blood consumes all rational thought.
Later that night, a young officer recovering from a nasty spill wakes up to find F.W. quietly LICKING HIS SCABBING STOMACH WOUNDS!!!!
To reveal anything further would be a disservice to this outstanding film. Ravenous is solid, top to bottom. Carlisle deserves an award for this role even if I have to be the guy to make one for him. Though it pains me to see him pigeon-holed as a psycho, it's partly his fault for being so damn good at it. Not even David Arquette's buffoonery can slow this one down.
4 comments:
Damon Albarn (Gorillaz/Blur) did a spectacular soundtrack for this one that truly complements the madness.
I have this weird feeling I've heard of this movie; I probably saw a trailer when it came out, which was shortly after L.A. Confidential, which was the first time I noticed Guy Pearce.
Begbie from Trainspotting! He's a crazy bastard.
That's cool that this is good. In the movie Dead Man (starring that no-talent Johnny Depp), cannibalism is a presented as a casual item in the real Wild West, and I'm inclined to believe it.
When I see the posters of this movie I can see why it didn't generate any interest. Period pieces can be a major turnoff for horror movies. Hammer bore-fests usually come to mind.
This did make me want to watch Trainspotting again. Robert Carlisle can be normal, he was great in the Full Monty.
I think the period horror movie is an underdeveloped subgenre. The right story could be boosted by the older setting, because back then they still had real ghosts.
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