When most horror fans think of cannibal movies, they probably think of the ones that came out of Italy during the 1970's and 1980's, particularly those by Ruggero Deodato. But Antonia Bird's Ravenous (1999) has nothing to do with Italy and their cannibal movies, besides the fact that it's also a cannibal movie. I wouldn't even call it inspired by those. It's nowhere near as gory, though it's still quite bloody.

Featuring Guy Pearce (Memento), Robert Carlyle (28 Weeks Later), Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and David Arquette (Scream series), Ravenous goes back into the 1800's and seemingly taking inspiration from the Donner Party, proceeds to explore just what kind of lengths men will go to when they need to survive in the wilderness.

So grab a severed arm or leg to snack on and join me for another... Reviews with Ballz!



John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is a soldier in the Mexican-American War and is promptly promoted from Second Lieutenant to Captain when he returns from war for kicking some major ass. However, it is quickly revealed that the ass kicking he delivered wasn't all that it was cracked up to be and as punishment, he's sent off to a snowy hellhole called Fort Spencer to get him far away from anyone else except for the few other soldiers stationed at the fort.

Once at the fort, Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones) gives Boyd a quick introduction to everyone else there and lets Boyd get settled in. It's not long however before a man named F.W. Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) shows up out of the wilderness to tell them about how he and several others were traveling by wagon only to become lost. The soldiers at the fort decide to go look for other survivors and so most of them, including Boyd, set off into the wilderness themselves.

There's quite a few things going on in this movie that make me like it as much as I do, besides the cannibalism. For one, the fact that it's a period piece adds a certain edge to the movie I think. That's not always the case since some movies want to go that route and proceed to feature almost nothing from the selected period, making you wonder why the hell they just didn't set it in modern times, but with Ravenous, I think they did a good job with portraying that time in the 1800's. And that leads me to the music they use in the movie, which fits in very well. One track that they use a few times has almost an upbeat tone to it, but even with that, it just works for where it's used.

There's also the violence in the movie. It gets quite violent with lots of blood being thrown around, which pleases the fuck out of someone like me. Now, I don't think this is the bloodiest movie I've ever seen, but something kind of funny is that supposedly, they ran out of fake blood in the middle of filming. To me, that's something everyone involved with the movie should be proud of. So if you haven't seen this movie before, I say check it out ASAP.

My Rating: 5/5