Ravenous (1999)

I love cinema. I mean, I truly LOVE cinema but sometimes you have the face the fact that it can be a pretty hypocrite business from time to time. Especially since the last ten years, everybody complains that there aren't any good horror movies being made. Only uninspired Scream clones and rip-off's. But that is a lie !! There are good and original thriller being made but they just don't get many attention because they are "politically incorrect". Ravenous is a perfect example of this. Made in 1999 and it stars a few familiar faces but it went straight to video in my country and I never saw it advertised. That's a real shame because movies like this prove that there are still young directors active who're creative and talented. It's up to the fans to discover movies like this and ignore the overload of mainstream slashers.

Ravenous has a very solid plot. simple but effective and supported by terrific acting performances. It shows a few of the darkest aspects of the human mind and, personally, I'm really intrigued by that. Subjects like Cannibalism and ancient Indian mythes are fascinating and when they're placed in a historical setting ( Mexican-American was of 1850 ) it even becomes better. This results in Ravenous being a very atmospheric and tense movie experience that you won't forget easily. The tension is built up slowly ( a bit too slow at first ) and the atmosphere of the cold and lonely Sierra Nevada is being portrayed very well. Guy Pierce is a great choice to play Captain John Boyd. His character is a cowardly figure with a complete lack of authority. He has to go through a battle himself and he's very messed up. The shows is obviously stolen by Robert Carlyle who is used to working with director Antonia Bird. His character is demonic and - duh - ravenous. A terrific performance and Carlyle manages to play his character with a lot of black humor and satanic charisma. David Arquette's role is pretty useless but it was great to see Jeffrey Jones again. Jones is a very decent actor and - even though he's frequently cast by Tim Burton - he's often overlooked and ignored. Ravenous is beautifully shot and some of the effects and make-up is pretty gruesome and explicit. But it isn't just mindless gore and violence so no complaints there. In fact, no complaints at all....Ravenous is a breath-taking movie from beginning till end and a must for anyone who believes that the genre of horror is dead.

Fmovies: One of the most original movies ever made. Also one of the funniest black comedies of all time.

It's funny the same way Fargo is. In fact, if the Coen Brothers ever returned to their thriller roots, or made a straight up horror, this is the type of movie they might end up with.

This AV Club blurb does a spot on job of conveying why this movie is so good.

It may be hard to believe now, but once upon a time — call it the late Nineties — a major movie studio sunk $12 million into a comedic western about 19th century soldiers who believed eating other humans endow folks with superhuman strength and the ability to recover from life- threatening injuries. When shooting on the film crashed to a halt after three weeks of interference and executive micromanaging, one of the suits at at 20th Century Fox hit upon an idea: fire director Milcho Manchevski — the Macedonian art house sensation whose devastating wartime romance Before the Rain was nominated for an Oscar — and replace him with Raja Gosnell, whose only feature credit to date was Home Alone 3. Shockingly, it didn't work out.

The cast, lead by Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle (fresh off his BAFTA-winning performance in The Full Monty), rejected Gosnell like a body denying a transplanted heart, and Ziskin's filmmaker of choice returned to the comforts of his wheelhouse in Los Angeles, where he would promptly get to work on Never Been Kissed. Carlyle eventually pressured Fox into filling the director's chair with his trusted collaborator, Antonia Bird, a veteran of British TV whose best known feature on these shores was Priest, about a closeted man of the cloth. It did not sound like an ideal match- up. Shockingly, it turned out great.

Ravenous is a film that, by design, was forced to thread the needle between three different genres, a challenge that few directors have the finesse to overcome under normal circumstances — let alone on a project that had more cooks in the kitchen than it did carnivores on screen. Kicking off with the twang of a banjo that might not have been tuned since 1846, this Mulligan's stew of a movie walks such a fine line between bleak comedy ("He was licking me!"), hyper- violent survival drama, and supernatural creature-feature that the guy narrating the trailer seems to have no idea what he's actually selling. Advertising lies all the time, but seldom is it so confused: "One man must choose between having dinner, and being dinner…" (You wait for him to follow that oddly jokey declaration up with "I guess?") Audiences of the time can hardly be blamed for not being sold.

But while many studio boondoggles betray the messiness of their making (Fantastic Four, anyone?), this ragged, unsung 1999 gem was one of the very few that was able to feed off the chaos. An origin story about the American spirit, the film is a lot like America itself: a melting pot of disparate elements, thrown together in a fit of violence, and galvanized by the righteous illusion that this is how God intended it to be.

Subtlety is not on the menu here, and it's easy to imagine how the bluntness of the script by Ted Griffin (Ocean's 11) helped it weather the constant assault of studio notes and creative upheaval. The story begins by introducing us to Second Lieutenant John Boyd (Guy Pearce), a Mexican- American War vet who's being promoted to Captain after killing an entire unit of enemy soldiers on their own turf. The problem is that, after playing dead and bei

............................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL

A Cult-Classic Masterpiece! Director Antonia Bird, has me totally convinced of her boundless talent! She has crafted a grippingly intense and bizarrely original film, that defies any attempt at pigeonholing or labeling! It is, at times, amusing, often deftly ironic, chillingly irreverent, with moments of intentional political INcorrectness, and ever so subtly feminist at its core.

Juxtapositioning, with flawless style and sobering effectiveness, diverse elements of Horror, Period Western, Action-Adventure, Psychodrama, Suspense and the Supernatural, against a backdrop of some of the most breathtakingly dazzling outdoor scenery imaginable(Shot near Durango, Mexico), and set to a perversely inspired musical score that highlights the full potential of music to shape the ambiance of a film and provide the psychological equivalent of running your fingernails across a blackboard!

Ms. Bird has managed to coax truly riveting performances from each member of a superb cast! Guy Pearce(L.A.Confidential), starring as Captain Boyd, provides us with an uncannily haunting portrait of a tormented pacifist soldier, in the throws of a fierce struggle for his own soul!

Robert Carlyle(Trainspotting) was icily convincing as a fanatically focused, but utterly deranged cannibal in uniform. Jeffrey Jones, in an oddly empathetic change of pace role, played mild-mannered Colonel Hart, plagued by an interminable list of human frailties. Thusly, he is easily subverted by the sinister Ives(Carlyle). Despite all of the aforementioned accolades, I feel I must offer a word of caution: Ravenous is undoubtedly NOT suited to everyone's taste!

Though it has scarcely a few moments of starkly violent or macabre footage, these moments seem so devastatingly repulsive, that they don't go away easily. Consequently, I'd hesitate to throw out the Welcome Mat on this One! If you don't particularly care for the extremely bizarre, you might just want to stay clear of RAVENOUS. 9*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

KissEnglishPasto@Yahoo.com

Ravenous fmovies. Too tempting to make bad puns here, such as saying this film is "strong meat," but I'll try not to.

Ravenous is not for the faint of heart (or of stomach), but if you can deal with the disturbing subject matter, this movie will reward you with a sardonic, intelligent script, slick direction, compelling performances, gorgeously haunting images and even--surprise!--a few laughs (albeit through clenched teeth). Tall order though it may be, this film leaps nimbly and unselfconsciously back and forth across the gulf separating humor and horror, taking the viewer breathlessly along for the ride. Not your tacky, run-of-the-mill slashfest, Ravenous draws you in with a skillful blend of psychological conflict, bone-gnawing (sorry) suspense, three-dimensional characters and real wit. Insofar as it defies ready classification, it has perhaps a tiny bit of spiritual kinship with An American Werewolf in London, which must have been every bit as challenging to market as this one apparently was. Don't let the amorphous nature of the ads stop you--this one is worth the trip.

Just be sure to stock up on vegetarian food beforehand.

Guy Pearce leads Jeffrey Jones, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette and more in a action-filled, horror thriller. Set during the backdrop of the Civil War, it follows Capt. John Boyd (Pearce) who is sent to the icy Nevada wilderness as result of cowardice. The music is awesome, the costumes are wounderfully designed and the elements of horror make this film one to see many times! The art direction is great and the story is what horror fans have been waiting for. Just like how the cover says, a cross between a vampire film and a cannibalism film. Those two put together create one of the most elaborate horror films ever.

I promise you that RAVENOUS will enthrall you until the very final frame. Hell, even the credits are exciting. The violence is pretty extreme (which is good) and the gloomy atmosphere and the icy bitterness of the Nevada Mountains is very good at creating a genuinely chilling mood for this awesome horror thriller! RAVENOUS: 5/5.

'Ravenous' is a highly entertaining and original blend of horror and black comedy. Apparently it had troubled beginnings with the original director being fired and Antonia Bird coming in as a last minute replacement at the behest of co-star Robert Carlyle ('Trainspotting') who had previously worked with her on 'Priest', a more different movie than this you couldn't imagine! Anyway, Bird triumphed and ended up with an excellent movie. David Arquette and Jeremy Davies are two actors I have little time for but they didn't have much on screen time and didn't detract from the great performances by Carlyle and 'Memento's Guy Pearce, who really sold the movie to me. I also really liked the role played by Tim Burton regular Jeffrey Jones. I enjoyed the work of all three actors, the unpredictable script, the inventive direction, and the unusual score by Peter Greenaway regular Michael Nyman and Blur's Damon Albarn, which reminded me at times of cult favourites Penguin Cafe Orchestra. 'Ravenous' isn't the greatest movie I've ever seen but I have enjoyed it all three times I've watched it and that's a lot more than I can say about most movies around these days. It's wicked fun with very clever touches of black comedy, and I highly recommend it.