Ravenous

Year of release : 1999

 

Run time : 1h41min

 

Genre : Thriller/ Horror / War

 

Cast : Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle

 

 

Captain John Boyd is relocated to a remote military outpost in California, as his superior doesn't want to see his face.

 

See, the captain is a bit of a coward,who ended up behind enemy lines,becoming a hero, after he played dead, as soldiers firing at each other made him panic. Ever since,he finds meat disgusting,making him vomit.

 

One night, a man shows up on their door, telling them an amazing story about how taking a shorter road,him and his companions ended up in a days long snow storm, and took shelter in a cave. He also told them in order to survive, their leader,captain Ives, ate the people.

 

Boyd's superior wants to investigate,as it is procedure, while the American Indian is telling him about the wendigo,who haunts the mountains looking for desperate souls,who feeds on human flesh and souls.

 

He believes it to be nonsense, and him and most of his men are lead to the cave where they find everybody's skeletons.

They realize things aren't what they seem,and this leads to their demise.

 

The only one escaping,again, is Boyd,who jumps to his death,refusing to become the cannibal's food.

 

Boyd survives,as he fell into the trees,and landed in the same spot his colleague who was shot by the cannibal. A few days and nights go by,as he lies in the cold ( it's winter),in this ditch,covered by tree branches,with a broken leg. He then realizes in order to survive ,he must eat.

 

The acting was great, especially from Robert Carlyle. Guy Pearce always looks sad,pensive,which really matches his character who doesn't want anything to do with war and fights,who is fasting, as meat(which is what they mostly eat,disgusts him).Unluckily for him,he keeps on ending up in these situations in which he's on survival mode.

 

The movie had this upbeat music, accordion and harmonica, I believe, even in the serious,scary scenes, which made me wonder if the director / producers thought they had a comedy on their hands. The music is pretty much ever present.

The music is very unique and made me wonder if they used the kind of music made back when the action of the movie takes place,in the 1840's, in the time of the American- Mexican war.

 

The only time when to me the music sounded really good, and matching the scenes was at the end of the movie.

 

Google labeled this movie a Western,but I don't see it.

 

Ravenous stars one of my favorite actors, Guy Pearce, whom I've been following( sounds stalkerish) for 20 years,and I think this movie might have been the first movie I ever saw him in.

 

Ravenous is for rent or sale on Amazon, Apple, DirecTv, Google, Vudu, YouTube.

 

Rating : Worth a watch !