RAVENOUS (1999) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1999 Ted Prigge
Director: Antonia Bird Writer: Ted Griffin Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey Jones, Jeremy Davies, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, Sheila Tousey, David Arquette, Joseph Runningfox, John Spencer
It's been a good long while since we had a really good horror film, not merely one that's scary, but one that puts atmosphere before plot, that replaces cheap special effects with more draw to earthly elements, and that is totally and truly original. Of course, 'Ravenous' isn't all original: it's more like a suspenseful twist on the Donnor Party or 'Alive.' 'Ravenous' may even be a twist on the more traditional vampire flick, with a villain who's seemingly unstoppable, suave, and lovable, and a general air of men sinking their teeth into other men and finding strength. Sounds all 'Interview With the Vampire'-esque to me, but 'Ravenous' is pretty much all about shocking you, not with gore or tension, but with originality and a bucketload of terrific atmosphere. Pretty much everything about 'Ravenous' screams unique, from the incredibly bizzaro score by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn (incidentally, two of my favorite musicians, the latter who has a new album with his band Blur coming out in a few short days) and, my favorite aspect, a tone which is so off-the-wall unplaceable that just explaining it sends me into streams of gibberish. It's not exactly darkly comic, and it's not exactly camp, but it's really funny and still really disturbing and gory and freakish and, well, I can't put a finger on it. The opening, especially, caught me off guard, even before the first shot. The screen pops up with a traditional quote from Nietzsche (the one about if you fight monster you may become him...), then you hear an arrow shot on the soundtrack and hit its mark, and suddenly another quote has popped up: '"Eat me." - Anonymous.'
We quickly meet our faithful protagonist, Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce), an accidental hero during the Mexican-American War being awarded a medal for capturing a fort, but in flashback, we see that after all, he was basically a big fat coward, who, like I probably would, plays dead in the middle of a key battle. A flashback occurs during the ceremony when he stares at the big juicy steak put in front of him (teeming with blood), showing us how he was buried under a pile of corpses, and when blood dripped into his mouth, he was able to regain his strength and single-handedly capture the fort. Due to nausea and whatnot, the commanding officer unveils his cowardice, and awards him third in command of a post way out in northern California, in the middle of nowhere. There he meets the usual motley crew: nervous priest Toffler (Jeremy Davies), drunken second-in-command Knox (Stephen Spinella), anal-retentive soldier Reich (Neal McDonnough), peyote-loving cook Cleaves (David Arquette), two helpful native Americans (Sheila Tousey and Joseph Runningfox), and droll C.O. Hart (Jeffrey Jones).
Mundanity plagues the post until one night when a mysterious man named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) stumbles into the area, freezing, starving, and unconscious. They nurse him back to health, and he relays his story: he was part of a trip to settle out in the west that got derailed due to a snow storm and had to take refuge in a cave. There, they ran out of food, and one by one, they started dying off, at which point they ate the dead. Hart, hearing that Colqhoun fled for fear that one of the two remaining people would kill him and eat him too, suggests that some of them take the three day hike up to the cave and investigate. From here, there are frightening revelations, numerous twists, and soon the film has turned into a gory, intense thriller, with frightening acts befalling several of the characters, and then a major twist that is there basically to keep the story going. Much of it is clichéd, and a lot of it is unbelievable (especially when one key character returns unexpectedly), but what keeps this film afloat is the way it has been crafted. On paper, it'd look lame and underthought, and standing back from it, and looking at each twist that occurs and everything that happens, it's easy to see how this film could use a little bit more work on the script and idea level.
But it's easy to ignore all that when it's right there in front of you because what is most memorable about this film anyway is not the twists and turns and contrivances of the plot, but the freakin' tone, which is so unnerving and strange that I can hardly believe that a major studio has released this wide, hoping it'll make a bit of kickback. I doubt it will; it's so weird that during the screening I attended, I was surprised surprised surprised that there weren't a whole bunch of walkouts. 'Ravenous' is strange, and people usually don't like strange, but maybe this film has a unique pull that makes it completely absorbing. I liked how it dealt with a Native American myth (that by eating flesh, one absorbs that person's energy and lifeblood) but never took it way too seriously, like a lot of films do (no chants and the peyote smoking is kept comical, thank you David Arquette). I liked the way it's structured, it allows there to be layer after layer after layer of mystery, making sure we never totally know what's going on and are shocked by every twist. And despite a somewhat boring lead character (Pearce needs to get out of the silent quasi-noble types department he's been in in this and in 'L.A. Confidential' before he gets in a rut), everyone else is pretty much interesting, if not a bit baffling (I just couldn't figure out Davies' character). And there's good acting too, especially from Caryle, who uses his trademark zeal to really ham it up and demonstrate that he's one of the best up-and-coming actors right about now; and there's a great performance from Jeffrey Jones, showing us what an ingenious supporting player he can be, breathing life into what could have been an otherwise dull character with a couple nice lines (again, just love this guy).
But as much of a blast as it is to watch, this film just doesn't know how to reach several of its conclusions throughout: its finale, notably, is extraordinarily anticlimactic, if not drolly stretched out and nicely gory. And throughout, even with the clichés, I was flabbergasted by how much they took the opening Nietzsche quote so literally, so much that placing it at the beginning seems coyly campy. Yet this film, despite its obvious and numerous flaws, is really entertaining. Antonia Bird, the director who stepped in when its original director was removed shortly into shooting, finds exactly the right tone for the film from the get-go, carries through with it, and makes 'Ravenous' several times better than it would have been, all while crafting everything to be devilishly unique and clever, from the performances to the cinematography. She even knows how to set up a shot so that it's at once interesting to look at and completely surprising in its revelations. In fact, 'Ravenous' may be the extreme example of a film saved by the correct application of atmosphere: its more mundane scenes, like flashbacks and gory bits of business, are saved by the tone, which give it a fresh, idiosyncratic feeling.
In fact, I'm nearly willing to ignore all the lousy parts of the film and merely state that this film is a rather excellent movie going experience: tense, captivating, original, moody, and abashedly entertaining. For every distracting cliché, there's a totally wonderful, free-spirited, and witty moment, like the one where a visiting general (John Spencer) discovers a pot o' stew and tastes it, though only we know what's really in there. For every lousy moment involving plot explanation or Native American mysticism explained over and over again, there's a great scene like the one where two cannibals try to seduce another one into their flock by robbing him of free will, all while spouting witty one-liners and aphorisms by Benjamin Franklin. And because of its tone, its sense of humor, and its general air of moody atmosphere, it's easy to brush off the more lame aspects of the film into the back corners of your membrane, and enjoy what's there on the screen. It's fun to watch a film that would otherwise be bad, that has a pretty terrible trailer that makes it looks like dung, and discover that it actually has a streak of originality and wit that allows to rise above what it could potentially be. Now, wouldn't it be nice if there was a film that took this farther, and was a surprise masterpiece despite the premonitions surrounding it?
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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