Ravenous

Cpt. Boyd (Guy Pearce), a highly decorated but cowardly Mexican-American War veteran, is assigned to Fort Spencer in the desolate mountains of California. He falls in with a group of misfits under the command of the bookish and jovial Col. Hart (Jeffrey Jones). A stranger named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) arrives, having narrowly escaped with his life. Spurred on by Colqhoun’s tale of cannibalism and desperation, the soldiers form a rescue party to seek out the remainder of his wagon train, with disastrous results.



Directed by Antonia Bird, “Ravenous” was marketed as a dark comedy, but it doesn’t really work on that level. The violence is gory rather than slapstick and the exaggerated sense of macabre comes off as convoluted and over-the-top rather than funny.



However, this isn’t to say that the film doesn’t work, period. Blur’s Damon Albarn provides a creepy, tense, sometimes idiosyncratic score. The aforementioned gruesomeness functions as an asset visually. If you’re trying to scare people, it’s better to be disgusting than cartoonish. The blood flows copiously, but it leans more toward chilling than silly.



Performances were a mixed bag. Carlyle overdoes it at times, but is consistently engaging to watch as the enigmatic Colqhoun. The normally strong Pearce turns in a subdued performance in the lead. Boyd is a character who is uncertain as to what he’s really made of and Pearce sometimes seems checked out as a result. Jones nails Hart’s perverse optimism, but it seems out of place in this film, as do comic relief turns by David Arquette and Jeremy Davies as bumbling privates. Neal McDonough fairs better as the only real soldier in the lot, though his screen time is brief. John Spencer, in his final big-screen role, brings the gravitas as Boyd’s skeptical superior.



Read as a commentary on consumerism, “Ravenous” fails because the metaphor is too deeply buried. But as a tonally-confused horror/Western/period piece, it delivers twists, tension and a taste (don’t slay me, pun gods) of entertainment.


7.5/10