Ravenous

Antonia Bird, UK/USA/Czech Rep., 1999, 35mm, 2.35, colour, 101′

SAT September 20 / 19.00 / Slovenian cinematheque

A criminally overlooked hybrid of black comedy, horror and western (with a thoroughly enjoyable final showdown to boost) by director Antonia Bird is certainly a unique addition to the cannibal subgenre: seldom do we see a mainstream film (in view of its star cast, high production values, brilliant photography and score) that takes the maxim “you are what you eat” so deliciously literally.

Colonel John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is dispatched to the remote outpost of Fort Spencer, California. And it is not long before a bedraggled stranger named Colquhoun (Robert Carlyle) arrives, telling of a stranded wagon train in the mountains and the acts of cannibalism among the survivors. Since some of them might still be alive, Boyd and his detachment of soldiers mount an expedition into the wilderness.

“What ensues is a wildly unpredictable story that manages to inject some much-needed blood into a genre that had seen more of a swing to suggestive horror in the late-’90s rather than out-and-out gore. Filled with classic moments (“He’s licking me!”) and featuring oddball performances by Carlyle and veteran character actor Jeffrey Jones (Beetlejuice, Ed Wood), all set to a wonderfully oddball and unexpectedly whimsical soundtrack by Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman, Ravenous has “cult classic” written all over it… in blood … Wickedly funny, often terrifying and wonderfully disgusting, Ravenous was the most subversive film to be released by a major studio in many a moon.”
– Brad Abraham, Rue Morgue’s 200 Alternative Horror Films