Movie review: Ravenous

When injured soldier Capt. Boyd arrives at an 1800's Army outpost in California, he tells a disturbing tale about the fate of his regiment. Sent on a rescue mission, Boyd and his command instead find a sadistic cannibal.

Guy Pearce (Capt. John Boyd), Robert Carlyle (Ives/Colqhoun), David Arquette (Cleaves), Jeremy Davies (Toffler), Jeffrey Jones (Col. Hart), Neal McDonough (Reich), Joseph Runningfox (George), Sheila Tousey (Martha).

Ravenous is a strangely dark comedy that is equally stealthy. The story begins nicely, showing us why Boyd is being sent to a remote outpost. In transit, Boyd and his companions are ambushed by another solider who has become a sadistic cannibal. The remainder of the film is a disturbing journey of discovery by those who are unaware, and attempts to convert them to cannibalism.

Acting was nicely done with Pearce doing a solid job. Carlyle exhibited amazing transformation and was appropriately disturbing throughout the film. Arquette was in type as a stoned dork along with Davies. Jones was solid and fun as always, while McDonough was perfectly creepy and added well to the dark humor.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were nicely done. Use of natural scenery was very good and brought nice reality to the film. Action scenes were disturbing, gory, and wonderful. Dialogue was decent with some interesting humor that moved the story along well. Sound and soundtrack were unusual to say the least, with some odd tracks that were almost as dark as the humor.

With our appetite for flesh briefly sated, Ravenous is found to be a delicious, tasty horror morsel with just enough smoky black comedy melded against some thrills, action, and plenty of juicy gore. Those who enjoy dark humor or horror will want a big helping of this one, while traditionalists may want to search elsewhere for sustenance.

With plenty of gore, violence, some more gore, rivers of blood, mild nudity, drug use, intense gore and violence, and some more blood just because; save this one for the oldest teens and above.

Released: 1999
Reviewed: 1.29.17
Star rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Thriller, Dark Humor, Supernatural Horror

copyright ©2017 Dave Riedel