Ravenous | | Cast : | Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle | | Director : | Antonia Bird | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 19, 1999 | | DVD Released Date : | December 17, 2002 | | Language : | English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 29, 2005 | | Summary | Ravenous Never Bites Off More Then it Can Chew. | Content
 | Ravenous
By
Nick Schwab
This film Ravenous is a fine movie meal that you should indulge yourself in. It's a film about cannibalism, with a dash of vampirism, and a pinch of adventure to sooth your tastebuds creating an insatiable hunger for more. It's the kind of meal served once every occasion, because when you're in the mood to watch it, is the best time to feed the empty stomach of good-movie hunger.
The film is about the horror that befalls a group of soldiers in an isolated fort, and takes the seemingley ordinary cannibalism genre tale, and gives it just the right amount of spice to grab the viewers' attention. As, Ravenous is a film that is for adventure seekers only, because in this film, cliches aren't on the menu.
"Location, Location, Location," is the phrase that some filmmakers say is the most important aspect of filmmaking. This idea is taken into extremes, and sucked to its greatest potential, with Ravenous's location set in the California snow-covered northeren mountains. This outdoors location gives the film a perfect sense of isolation, and atmospheric abandonment, from the outside world; and, gives the film a sense of lonlieness, and depressive cabin fever.
The opening forty-five minutes of the film is the perfect appetizer filled with a great zing of an utter adreneline rush, that is utterley delightful, and suprising. This opening grabs you and doesn't let go with a tightley edited, well directed, buetifully shot, and all around tasty opener. Then the film piles on twist after twist, to send you to its finale, that is another finely prepared, well placed, and deliciously savoring dessert, that you can surely sink your teeth into.
Like the finest waiters, the actors of this film all give the audience reason to come back again-and-again. Guy Pearce is well focused as the callow soldier, who builds his confidence and mascualinity up throughout the film. Admittedly, the beginning scenes don't have much to offer in sympathizing with this yellow character, but Pearce hangs in there, and gives an enduring show.
While the first half of the film shouldn't be given away, but it should be said that the character who plays the main villian does a excellent job. This character is menacing as heck, and would give Hannibal Lecter a lesson in scare tactics, because he's just that intense. He almost steals the show, and may actually get you rooting for him by film's end. The supporting cast does well too, including Jeffrey Jones, who plays his character to a "T," and has a great sense of humor.
Like a cook at the finest restaurant, Antonia Bird's directing is what makes the film appetizing; with the adreneline of a pack of cattle saving themselves from being hamburger, as his polished camera eye is just flat out gripping. By using excellent camera moves, cinematography, and an astonishing music score, Bird holds you into your seat, and says, "I got more where that came from," to get you goggily eyed for more.
Ravenous is just a great outdoors horror movie, and is what a good movie feast is made of. It stops the crave for hunger, because it provides the courses of good acting, directing style, writing, and a smoggesboard of twists and turns, that will leave the viewer with a full stomach, by the time the end credits roll. So, the next time your in the mood for some fine horror-movie dining, don't hesitate to make a reservation with Ravenous, because it's simply filling.
Grade- A |
| Rating | | | Date | May 13, 2005 | | Summary | Curse of the Wendigo | Content
| I'd like to start off this review by questioning the idiocy that certain reviewers have displayed in their inane reasoning for bashing this film. Most people who rip on Ravenous are obviously morons who enjoy numbskull action movies with a bunch of lame special effects and a recycled plot line. Or, maybe they enjoy romantic comedies? Who really knows for sure? All I do know is that the bad reviews here give an erroneous perception of this film. I'd like to state that this is in NO WAY a vampire tale of any kind. This is a cannibalism feature due to the fact that this film is about the Wendigo. There are variations of this old Native American myth, which describes a human man (There are many variations, some say it can possess all men, other tales describe it as a white man's curse.) resorting to cannibalism (for whatever reason) and thus being inflicted by the Wendigo curse. Maybe he was snowbound and his last resort was consuming human flesh. Maybe the individual is truly evil and willingly participates in the ritual act of devouring another mans flesh to gain his strength and capture his soul. Hardly vampirism, wouldn't you agree? (Not to mention he can walk in the daylight, doesn't wear a silly cape, and tells you he'll suck your blood in a funny Romanian accent) I enjoyed the Wendigo tale growing up and this surpasses even Algernon Blackwood's story. Ravenous takes the elements of the original Wendigo myth, combines it with parts of Blackwood's tale, and even throws in a twist to tie in with the Donner Party incident in the Rockie Mountains. The way they were able to weave that into the story was simply fantastic. I was really glad that this film didn't decide to transform Carlysle's character into the Golem-esque character that certain Native tribes say morphs a humans physical features. What makes it very creepy is the fact that Wendigo looks like an actual man, only through consuming flesh, he is able to gain much strength, looks healthier and is far more cunning and dangerous. It makes this movie even more realistic. The acting and soundtrack are stellar, I don't even need to go into detail. All of those involved are professional actors who were very convincing in their roles, especially Pierce and Carlyle (who's portrayal as a Wendigo completely owns made up horror characters such as Freddy, Jason, etc.) Some reviewer questioned how Carlyle was able to transform so quickly into the role of Ives and integrate himself back into the fort. It's simple... Basically, why would you over-analyze this? It is meant to be a twist and it relies on its cryptic nature for shocking the viewer when Pierce sees his character return. The way Pierce dramatically throws himself to the ground makes you really feel his sudden rush of horror and disbelief. This is a supernatural tale, something's are better left up to your imagination, it's a movie, they're supposed to play out like that. Another reviewer asked how Carlyle was able to get up after getting shot in the chest, he obviously wasn't paying attention the myth passage. I don't find this movie to be filled with gratuitous violence either. The violence that we are shown is appropriate and never overdone, this is cannibalism, and it can get quite messy! There is another film out called "Wendigo" which left me appalled. Ravenous IS the true film dealing with the Wendigo tale. This is also a thinking mans film, using the tale of the Wendigo as an analogy for Manifest Destiny. So, no vampires out in these backwoods, only the Wendigo; the hunter of men... |
| Rating | | | Date | April 02, 2005 | | Summary | The Hungry I | Content
| There is a huge, hairy, bellicose bellowing beast perched there on the edge of the Sierra Nevadas: a slavering, hungry, big-bellied monster that has slobbered and howled and eaten its way West, gobbling up bankers and railroad tycoons and cowboys and gunslingers and soldiers, tinkers, tailors, spies, the entire Indian Nation and itinerant railroad coolies from Cathay.
Its name is Manifest Destiny---and O Hail Columbia, It's Hungry! It's Hungry for more.
The spirit of consumption, ingestion, devouring the heart of the Enemy and making his strength your own---not only was that the spirit that fired our young Republic's westward march, but it's the same spirit that serves as the guts and glory of "Ravenous", a modern anthem to good hearty eating and the pioneer spirit.
More a Weird Wild West vampire tale than anything else, Ravenous entertains in fits and starts---but what atmospheric and blackly funny fits and starts! Ravenous is a decidedly off-beat and undeservedly underrated little horror tale with nice big chunks of frontier adventure, cabin-fever craziness, cannibalism and ghoulishness, Indian devil lore, and shades of the Donner Party, all served in hearty helpings with fine cinematography, glorious sets, sumptuous costumes, and actors who look like they just step out of a 19th century daguerrotype.
Tasty.
Director Antonia Bird distinguished herself with the deft and entertaining but uneven and preachy Priest, which was an effective cinematic diatribe against Catholic orthodoxy. In Ravenous, Bird is not out to preach to anyone, which is what makes the film so much good fun: it is a finely drawn exercise in black humor, unnerving and harrowing (and often eerie) yet also impish and nastily funny. "Isn't this civilized?," asks Jeffrey Jones's revivified Colonel while chowing down on a stew made from the fort's drunken Major, and the answer is, hysterically, yes---civilizingly good cinema about men on the edge getting pushed all the way over it.
Hero Guy Pearce (Memento), whose sturdy cheekbones and Pimpernel-esque diction stole the show in the mediocre Count of Montecristo, plays a strangely understated---and thus doubly effective---role as Captain John Boyd, an American officer decorated for his bravery in the Mexican-American war. But Boyd is not a hero, rather a coward who can barely stand the sight of blood (he gets over it), and whose heroism was largely accidental. The Army Brass knows this but nonetheless needs a hero: Boyd is feted and feasted, treated with a rousing rendition of "Hail Columbia" as interpreted by a bunch of psychotic 4th graders, and dispatched to the lonely hinterland outpost Fort Spencer, which sits on the verge of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Transfer or penance: Boyd barely gets settled down for a long winter's night when the Stranger staggers out of the deep black fierce woods, pushing his stark white face up against the fort windows.
The Stranger(the leering, grinning, slavering Robert Carlyle) bears with him a ravening, Donner-esque tale of a lost party of snowbound travelers, drowned in horror, futility, and death in the snow-choked passes.
Oh, and Cannibalism, did I mention that? People gotta eat.
An expedition party is hastily assembled to search out any survivors: from there our quirky band of misfits---and "Ravenous"---lurches into a darker domain.
The first half of the film is a blend of paranoid frontier adventure and outright horror, with Carlyle's stranger one of the more terrifying and mysterious fiends in cinematic history. The second half of the movie is considerably less frightening (and thus slightly disappointing, given the first 60 minutes of lead-in and the snippet of Wendigo legend), and Ravenous becomes more of a variation on the standard vampire tale. To say more about the mechanics of this shift would be to spoil the fun.
Ravenous works on so many levels: the rough and forbidding scenery (with Czech mountains doubling for the Sierras) and the capricious score work as characters in their own right. The cinematography is outstanding, and Bird makes good use of the unyielding landscape without and the shadowy and claustrophobic fort interiors (thrown into darkness by the natural light) within.
Finally, the acting is superb, from Jones's bookish Colonel to David Arquette's short but tasty role as a cook (what else?) who inhales a little too much from a peace pipe. Rich in atmosphere, rife with deviltry, stewed and simmered in spicy Manifest Destiny, this film is a fine, hearty stew of a horror movie. Dig in.
JSG
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| Rating | | | Date | February 08, 2005 | | Summary | Weird, but interesting in a different way | Content
| I enjoyed this movie. I think you should watch it. However, don't expect to be moved by it or gain anything from it. One thing for sure, it is not a movie like any other one you've watched.
Ravenous is based on a Native American folklore called weendigo. That is if a man consumes another man's flesh, the man also consumes his strength. Hence, the consumer's hunger becomes insatiable. He keeps on wanting more (more human flesh) and the only way to stop this is death.
The main character Boyd, played convincingly by Guy Pearce, experiences weendigo on the battlefield during the war against Mexico. He hides under a pile of dead men out of cowardice, unintentionally swallows blood dripping from a dead soldier on top, and hence gains strength and single-handedly conquers the Mexican command, thereby becoming a hero by being a coward.
He tells his commanding officer about this and the disappointed officer stations him in Fort Spencer, a post in the isolated snow-covered area in or near California. The post consists of several very odd characters, including a funny commanding officer played by Jeffrey Jones, a very religious soldier, a hard-core maniac soldier, two Native Americans, a drunk, and some total weirdo played by David Arquette (couldn't figure out that character, perhaps he was on drugs).
Soon the group is joined by Calhoun, a cannibalistic officer also possessed by Weendigo. Now, can Boyd become a true hero and save the group from Calhoun?
The movie has some pretty cool scenes. One that stands out is when Calhoun reveals his identity as a cannibal and chases Boyd and other members of the company along the mountain with some fun harmonica music. The fight scene between Boyd and Calhoun at the end was also convincing.
Anyway, it is a fun entertainment. Just check it out. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 30, 2005 | | Summary | Bon Appetit! | Content
| Ravenous is a very clever movie and a good one at that.. It is a classic generally in the sense of other genres with sick twisted humor. It is certainly not for the faint of heart and one can make the assertion that everyone is not going to like the movie. I presume those not accustomed to gratuitous gore and the subject matter..Ahem "stew" will be offended.
Still, there is something to be said of Robert Carlyle's (trainspotting's begbie) chilling performance as the maniacal Colqhoun. The transformation from the frostbitten stranger to the cold and calculating Colqhoun (Wendigo) is very disturbing.
Robert Carlyle's Colqhoun is the epitome of pure unadulterated evil. ******* Brilliant! (The character is that good and cool so much so you actually root for the next kill.. ahem meal) A five star alone just for the cave scene and the startling music as Colqhoun closes down on the prey or preys as in plural. I think the chase scene has a mixture of strange banjo and some other instruments in the score. Nonetheless, it is very startling!
The scene with Jeffrey Jones C.O. (Quite some shock from the inept headmaster in Ferris.B to a cannibal) in the short utter "He was licking me!" is most appalling in a very funny and I might add twisted way. This movie is dark and there are other movies not exactly in the same genre but european and with just enough gore (See.. lock, stock and 2 smoking B..)
The movie is an acquired taste and no doubt, many will find the voracious appetite of Colqhoun for human flesh horrifying!
but for all others, Bon Appetit!
The films taglines like "You are who you eat" and "Eat up" says it all. It is a masterful suspense of carnivorous proportions (No Pun intended).. |
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