Ravenous (1999)
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A disgraced US Army captain is exiled to a remote outpost where he must survive a sadistic cannibal and a supernatural curse of insatiable hunger.
The story
During the Mexican–American War, US Army second lieutenant John Boyd is sent to Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost in the Sierra Nevada, as punishment for perceived cowardice. While at the fort, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives, having fled a wagon train lost in the mountains. The fort's Indian scout warns of the Wendigo myth: those who consume human flesh become cursed demons. When a rescue party is sent out to find survivors, they discover that Colqhoun has already murdered and consumed his companions, leading to a terrifying struggle for survival against the voracious stranger.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
During the Mexican–American War, US Army second lieutenant John Boyd is sent to Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost in the Sierra Nevada, as punishment for perceived cowardice. While at the fort, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives, having fled a wagon train lost in the mountains. The fort's Indian scout, George, warns of the Wendigo myth: those who consume human flesh become cursed demons. A rescue party discovers that Colqhoun has already murdered and consumed his companions. Colqhoun kills the rescue party one by one, leaving Boyd the sole survivor. Boyd escapes by jumping off a cliff, breaking his leg, and hides in a pit where he eats some of a fallen comrade's flesh to survive. Boyd returns to the fort delirious, but the soldiers do not believe his tale. A second expedition finds no trace of Colqhoun. However, a new commander arrives, presenting himself as the murdered Colonel Ives. Ives reveals he killed and ate a scout to cure his tuberculosis and now plans to use the fort to cannibalize travelers. Boyd is suspected of murder and incarcerated, where he watches Major Knox be murdered by the real killer, Colonel Hart, who was also fed to Ives. Ives forces Boyd to choose between joining him or dying; Boyd eventually eats human stew to heal his injuries. Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Ives. They wound each other but cannot die easily due to their recuperative powers. In an outhouse, Boyd pins Ives into a bear trap; Ives expires first, and Boyd dies on top of his adversary, refusing to eat the body. Martha, George's sister, finds the bodies and walks away as General Slauson arrives.
- First release year
- 1999
- Runtime (minutes)
- 100
- Production countries
- United Kingdom; United States; Mexico
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Antonia Bird
- Writers
- Ted Griffin · writer
- Cast and characters
- Guy Pearce · John Boyd; Robert Carlyle · Colqhoun; Jeffrey Jones; David Arquette; Jeremy Davies; Stephen Spinella; Neal McDonough; John Spencer
- Genres
- black comedy; horror; western
- Themes
- critique of manifest destiny; colonialism; capitalism; addiction; consumption
- Tone and mood
- black comedy; horror; satire; film noir; giddy and gruesome
- Premise and plot tags
- cannibalism; Wendigo myth; Mexican-American War; supernatural horror; Western
- Source material / true-story basis
- loosely inspired by the Donner Party and the story of Alfred Packer
- Content notes
- gruesome; distasteful
- Reception
- The film was a box-office bomb and received mixed reviews initially, but it has since garnered a reputation as a cult film.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 52% · review count: 66; Rotten Tomatoes · score: 6/10; Metacritic · score: 46 · scale: 100 · review count: 23; CinemaScore · score: D · scale: A+ to F
- Production trivia
- The original director Milcho Manchevski was fired three weeks into production.; The film was shot on location in the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia and Durango in Mexico.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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