Monday, December 26, 2016

Day 56: Ravenous

Aaaand, we're back to being caught up. Ravenous is a weird little indie horror movie starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle. Pearce plays a soldier who survived a battle in Mexico under dubious circumstances. He is sent to a remote fort in the Sierra Nevada mountains as his new post. Robert Carlyle shows up grievously wounded and claiming to be the only survivor of an attack on his group that was traveling through the mountains. Things get bad quickly and, as soon as you think the movie has hit a climax, it almost resets. There are definitely two acts here and, to give away anything about the second act would be a crime.

The whole movie oozes filth and fear very well, earning the indie cred...right up until the studio lost faith in the project. The last quarter of the movie was shot by a different director and it shows. The attention to grimy detail is lost and the violence becomes more commercial and cartoonish. I think there are a few explosions by the end in an 1800s period piece. I will say that, obviously, the movie should evoke thoughts of the Donner Party and men turned cannibal on the edge of America. Where it takes these ideas is pretty surprising. Despite the ending, worth a watch.


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