grigori77:

RAVENOUS

Dir. ANTONIA BIRD; Wri. TED GRIFFIN; Music. MICHAEL NYMAN & DAMON ALBARN; Starring. GUY PEARCE, ROBERT CARLYLE, DAVID ARQUETTE, JEREMY DAVIES, JEFFREY JONES, JOHN SPENCER, STEPHEN SPINELLA, NEAL McDONOUGH, JOSEPH RUNNINGFOX, SHEILA TOUSEY; R.T. 100 mins; 1999, United Kingdom/USA/Czech Republic/Slovakia

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Captain John Boyd (Pearce), a “hero” of the Mexican-American War, is transferred to the remote military outpost of Fort Spencer, deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to cover up his cowardice during a decisive victory.  His peaceful isolation is shattered by the arrival of Colqhoun (Carlyle), a half-starved escapee from an ill-fated wagon-train, which prompts the garrison to head out into the frozen wilderness to rescue the remaining survivors.  What they find is a nightmare …

WHY IT’S LOST: Ocean’s 11 screenwriter Ted Griffin’s jet black comic horror, inspired by the real life cannibalism of the Donner Party Massacre, had such a troubled production history it’s a miracle it made it to the screen at all – three weeks into the shoot, original director Milcho Manchevski, whose relationship with executives at production company Fox 2000 was already badly strained, was booted from the project; the producers then brought in Raja Gosnell, who was roundly rejected by the cast, leading to his own replacement by Antonia Bird, the recommendation of Robert Carlyle, who’d previously worked with her on British crime thriller Face.  The shoot continued to hit speed-bumps with Bird also getting rubbed up the wrong way by the producers, and when the film was finally released it was met with mixed reviews by critics who clearly didn’t know what to make of it, badly underperforming at the box office (ultimately making just two million against a $12 million budget) and vanishing into relative obscurity.

WHY YOU SHOULD DISCOVER IT:  Even so, the film has built up a healthy cult following in the years since, and rightly so – this is an absolute gem of the genre, probably my favourite ever “cannibal horror”, and an absolute masterpiece of dark comedy.  Despite Bird’s troubled shoot, she shows the same kind of flair for complex character dynamics and oppressive, confrontational atmospherics I enjoyed in Face, ably supported by a comprehensively exceptional cast of truly MAJOR talent.  Guy Pearce again proves why he’s one of the most dramatically compelling leading men working in cinema today, investing the potentially loathsome character of Boyd – a self-serving coward who routinely runs away from confrontation – with a wounded dignity and steadfast moral code that wins us over, while Robert Carlyle is a SPECTACULAR villain, seductively charming and gleefully casual about his predatory nature, frequently terrifying but never becoming overblown or hammy; their light-versus-dark dynamic lends the film a robust driving force, but they never eclipse the sterling supporting cast, the likes of Tim Burton regular Jeffrey Jones, Scream star David Arquette, Saving Private Ryan’s Jeremy Davies’ and Hollywood heavyweight John Spencer all making their significant presences felt. This is an endlessly engaging film, the weighty themes of manifest destiny and moral right-and-wrong versus real-life necessity given due contemplation while the well-rounded, endlessly fascinating characters negotiate the meaty, twisted plot, and while the action is suitably intense, dripping in wire-taut atmospheric tension and plentiful literal gore, it still tends to be played for some major belly-laughs and is all the better for it.  Add a delightfully odd score from Michael Nyman and Blur’s Damon Albarn to the rich, flavoursome mix and this is a unique, rewarding and deeply satisfying film that deserves some major recognition.