Hungry for Movie Night? Try Ravenous!

While I am not overly fond of genre movies per se, I have a weakness for movies that bridge multiple genres, blending their conventions together in new and interesting ways. Bladerunner is probably the best known example I can think of; it has the visual and conceptual trappings of a sci-fi movie, but its structure and characters are all film noire. I'm always on the look out for movies that explore and combine genre in new and interesting ways, so when a friend described the movie Ravenous to me a few years ago, I knew I had to see it. Ravenous is the only movie I know of that can be described as a historical supernatural suspense comedy drama, a combination I happen to think is pretty awesome.

Released in 1999, Ravenous tells the tale of Capt. John Boyd (played by Guy Pierce), a Mexican-American War veteran, who is banished to a remote fort in the Sierra Nevadas for an act of cowardice on the battlefield. Boyd settles into life at the fort with its other inhabitants--a drunkard doctor, a zealot soldier, a Native American brother & sister, an ineffectual chaplain, and a colonel resigned to his fate. Shortly after Boyd's arrival, however, a stranger (Robert Carlyle) stumbles into camp. Dressed in the robes of a priest and apparently lost, he tells them his name is Colqhoun, and that he was part of a group that became lost while traveling west through the mountains. He tells of how his group turned to cannibalism, and that when he fled, he left their apparently flesh-hungry leader, Col. Ives, with the last survivor. Boyd sets out with most of the fort's inhabitants (with Colqhoun as their guide) to rescue the last survivor from Ives. Things are pretty much downhill from there.

While Ravenous is fairly gory (contributing to its R rating), I don't think it's particularly over the top. The acting is solid (I'm particularly fond of Jeffery Jones' and Robert Carlyle's performances). Its soundtrack is unique (if you hate it at first, I encourage you to give it a chance--it definately grew on me after the first time I saw the movie, and now I find it to be strangely charming). It is at once unlike any movie you have seen before, yet reminiscent of a thousand different genre films. I heartily encourage adventurous movie watchers to give it a chance.

Places you can purchase Ravenous online:

Ravenous at Amazon.com
Ravenous at Barnes & Noble
Ravenous at Best Buy