Ravenous

1847. Fresh from the Mexican American war, Capt John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is transferred to a remote, sparsely populated army fort in the Sierra Nevadas. Hot on his heels comes the stricken figure of a Scot, Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle), with a cannibal tale to chill even the bravest of them. There are souls to save, so Boyd and his men head off into mortal danger, with the Scot as their guide.

This troubled production went through no less than three directors, but somehow turned out great — if black comic horror westerns are your thang. Credit British director Antonia Bird for pulling it all together and especially the anti-colonial political subtext. The bluegrass score by Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman helps a lot too. 1999 was a great year for movies and this cult curio stand as one of the strangest — and the grisliest.

A gourmet dish for midnight movie ghouls.

Time Out

The greatest cannibal western ever made! Ravenous butchers the fantasy that the United States is a banquet with room for everyone at the table. This is a landscape where ’manifest destiny’ becomes a handy euphemism for all sorts of horrors, and a reminder that progress was never possible without savagery; the frontier was the Hunger Games, and it always has been. That may not be breaking news, but the film isn’t interested in telling you something that you don’t know, only showing it to you in a way so giddy and gruesome that you’ll never be able to forget it.

David Ehrlich, Rolling Stone

A layered and very unique satire on America’s consumption of the world…

Felix Vasquez, Cinema Crazed

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