RAVENOUS A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1999 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
Make no bones about it, "Ravenous" is one weird motion picture.
Its storyline reads like one of those "Plot or not?" slides shown before the main feature: "In 1847, a cowardly soldier is exiled to a remote Californian compound where a Scottish cannibal drops in uninvited for lunch."
Not? Guess again.
As far as original story ideas go, "Ravenous" is truly unique. It's best described as a period cannibal horror comedy, or thereabouts. Whether or not you can stomach its grisly subject matter for 100 fascinating minutes, one thing is clear: the folks who made this picture, especially in today's "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" climate, had guts.
Cannibalism on any level is never an easy topic, but director Antonia Bird ("Priest"), screenwriter Ted Griffin, and an absorbing cast (among them Guy Pearce, Jeffrey Jones, Jeremy Davies, David Arquette, and "The Full Monty"'s Robert Carlyle) give "Ravenous" a depth that belies its jocular "you are who you eat" promotional campaign. A successful campaign nonetheless--the preview for this movie, with its blaring soundtrack, has been running for months, and I was hooked the very first time I saw it.
A word about that soundtrack. Co-composed by Michael Nyman (usually associated with filmmaker Peter Greenaway) and Damon Albarn, the score for "Ravenous" is one of the most disconcerting I've heard in a long time. With its jangling, jarring rhythms and bumpkin levity, the music is loud when it should be delicate, whimsical when it should be brooding, and fractious when subtlety would have been the obvious way to go. Frankly, it's amazing. Like director Richard Lester once said: "You've done everything I wouldn't have done, but it works!"
Guy Pearce ("L.A. Confidential") plays Capt. John Boyd, a military officer who feigns death in order to escape an American-Mexican War offensive. Castigated by his commanding officers, Boyd is transferred to Fort Spencer, a desolate outpost in the western Sierra Nevadas where a party of six dig in for the cold winter ahead.
One day a disheveled stranger called Colqhoun (Carlyle) appears at their door, spinning a horrific tale of a terrible storm, a subterranean refuge, dwindling supplies, and an unthinkable source of fresh meat. Boyd and a small company of men return with Colqhoun to the cave and it's then that the film's supernatural hijinx, and copious bloodletting, kick in.
That its cannibal theme is played so beautifully straight gives "Ravenous" much of its substance, its psychological as well as visceral horror. Straight, but with a sly sense of humor. The trailers may stress the film's comedic element but don't be fooled: the gore quotient in "Ravenous" is extremely high.
On the surface, "Ravenous" could easily be dismissed as nothing more than hocum, yet the quality of the production grants it an eerie resonance. Either way, the film deserves high praise for its startling originality.
It's a smart, gory, and very satisfying comic horror film.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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