horror Western
The horror Western is a crossgenre of both the Horror genre, horror and Western (genre), Western genres. It has it roots in films such as ''Curse of the Undead'' (1959), featuring Michael Pate as a vampire gunfighter; and ''Billy the Kid vs. Drac ...
cannibal film
Cannibal films, alternatively known as the cannibal genre or the cannibal boom, are a subgenre of horror films made predominantly by Italian filmmakers during the 1970s and 1980s. This subgenre is a collection of graphically violent movies that u ...
starring
Guy Pearce
Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...
,
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle (born 14 April 1961) is a Scottish actor. His film work includes '' Trainspotting'' (1996), ''The Full Monty'' (1997), ''The World Is Not Enough'' (1999), ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), '' The Beach'' (2000), ''28 Weeks Later'' (20 ...
,
Jeffrey Jones
Jeffrey Duncan Jones (born September 28, 1946) is an American character actor, best known for his roles as Emperor Joseph II in ''Amadeus'' (1984), Edward R. Rooney in ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), Charles Deetz in ''Beetlejuice'' (1988) ...
and
David Arquette
David Arquette (born September 8, 1971) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise ''Scream'', for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster Enter ...
. The film, which is set in 1840s
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, was directed by
Antonia Bird
Antonia Jane Bird, FRSA (27 May 1951 – 24 October 2013Kate Hardi"Antonia Bird obituary" ''The Guardian'', 28 October 2013) was an English producer and director of television drama and feature films.
Career
In 1968, at the age of 17, Bird ...
and filmed in Europe. It was not a box office success and failed to recoup much of its $12 million budget. However, despite initial reception being mixed when first released, it has since garnered a reputation as a
cult film
A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage ...
.
''Ravenous'' had a troubled history. Issues over budget and shooting schedules were still ongoing when filming was about to start in
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
walked off the set three weeks into production, he was replaced by Bird at the suggestion of actor Robert Carlyle.
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...
and
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...
composed the film's score, which generated a significant amount of interest for its quirky and inventive use of loops, instruments and musical structure.
Screenwriter
Ted Griffin
Ted Griffin (born December 21, 1970) is an American screenwriter whose credits include '' Ravenous'', ''Matchstick Men'', and ''Ocean's Eleven''.
Born in Pasadena, California, Griffin graduated from Colgate University in 1993. He was schedule ...
wrote a script that combined elements from the
Donner Party
The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in th ...
and that of the real life "The Colorado Cannibal",
Alferd Packer
Alfred Griner Packer (January 21, 1842 – April 23, 1907), also known as "The Colorado Cannibal", was an American prospector and self-proclaimed professional wilderness guide who confessed to cannibalism during the winter of 1874. He and fi ...
, who survived by eating five companions after becoming snowbound in the
San Juan Mountains
The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...
in the 1870s. However, the film's plot also serves as an overt criticism of
Manifest destiny
Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th century in the United States, 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America.
There were three basic tenets to the concept:
* The special vir ...
through its use of
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
. By turning the act into an insatiable hunger, the voracious need to eat human flesh is equated to the all-consuming pursuit of power and wealth that was inherent to the expansionist attitudes of those seeking to settle the
American frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...
in the 19th century.
Plot
During the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
, Second Lieutenant John Boyd, who is fighting in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
, finds his courage failing him in battle and plays dead as his unit is massacred. His body, along with the other dead, is put in a cart and hauled behind Mexican lines. However, in a moment of bravery, Boyd seizes the chance to capture the Mexican command post. His heroism earns him a captain's promotion, but when General Slauson learns of the cowardice through which victory was achieved, he posts Boyd into exile at Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost high in the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
commanded by the weary but genial Colonel Hart, and staffed by a motley array of misfits: the pious Private Toffler, the drug-addicted Private Cleaves, the drunken Major Knox and the ferocious Private Reich, in addition to the Native American scout George and his sister Martha.
Shortly after Boyd joins the garrison, a frostbitten stranger named Colqhoun arrives and shares a hellish tale about how his
wagon train
''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...
became lost in the mountain because a Colonel Ives had promised the party a shorter route to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, he led them on a more circuitous route resulting in the party getting trapped by snow for three months. Wracked by starvation, Colqhoun and his fellow travellers were reduced to
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
, while he alleges that Ives resorted to murder. A rescue party is assembled to retrieve any survivors and capture Ives. George warns those who are leaving about the
Wendigo
Wendigo () is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from the folklore of Plains and Great Lakes Natives as well as some First Nations. It is based in and around the East Coast forests of Canada, the Great Plains region of the Uni ...
myth: anyone who consumes the flesh of their enemies takes their strength but becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable hunger for more human flesh.
When the soldiers reach Ives' cave, Boyd and Reich investigate. They discover the bloody remains of five skeletons, and realise that Colqhoun is Ives and he murdered everyone. Colqhoun's plan is now to kill and eat the soldiers. Colqhoun quickly kills George, Toffler and Colonel Hart, and, after a brief struggle, Reich. Boyd escapes the massacre by jumping off a cliff but breaks his leg. He hides in a pit next to the body of Reich whom he eventually eats to stay alive.
When a delirious and severely
traumatized
Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical. ...
Boyd finally limps back to the fort, he returns to find it has been reinforced by General Slauson and a detachment of cavalry. Cleaves and Martha (who were on a supply mission and had not met Colqhoun) do not believe his wild tale, while the hung-over Knox cannot recall and refuses to back Boyd up. A second expedition to the cave finds no bodies or any trace of Colqhoun. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort but to Boyd's horror, it is Colqhoun, who is now calling himself Colonel Ives again. The men still refuse to believe Boyd because Colqhoun bears no sign of the wounds inflicted on him during the fight at the cave.
Secretly, Colqhoun tells Boyd that he used to suffer from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
but when a Native scout told him the Wendigo myth, then he "just had to try" by murdering him and eating his flesh, a process that cured his disease. Colqhoun now plans to use the fort as a base to cannibalize passing travellers because, like the notion of
manifest destiny
Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th century in the United States, 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America.
There were three basic tenets to the concept:
* The special vir ...
, the migrants had a calling just like himself. Boyd is soon suspected of murder after Cleaves is mysteriously killed. While chained up, he watches helplessly as Knox is murdered by Colqhoun's unexpected ally: Colonel Hart, back from the dead after the massacre. Colqhoun had saved Hart by feeding him his own men in order to gain his assistance. But like Colqhoun, he is now hopelessly addicted to human flesh. Colqhoun mortally wounds Boyd, forcing him to make a choice: eat or die.
Eventually, Boyd gives in and eats a stew made from Knox. However, rather than join the two men in their conspiracy to convert General Slauson, Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Colqhoun. Hart does so, but also asks to be killed because he no longer wants to live as a cannibal. Boyd agrees to this. Boyd and Colqhoun fight, inflicting grievous wounds on each other, as their recuperative powers sustain them. Eventually, Boyd forces Colqhoun into a large bear trap that pins them both together. Colqhoun taunts Boyd by telling him that he will eat him, but soon dies. General Slauson returns, and while his aide looks around the dilapidated fort, the general tastes the meat stew left simmering on the fire. Martha sees the deceased Colqhoun and the dying Boyd together, closes the door, and walks away. Boyd does not eat Colqhoun and dies.
Cast
*
Guy Pearce
Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...
as Captain John Boyd
*
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle (born 14 April 1961) is a Scottish actor. His film work includes '' Trainspotting'' (1996), ''The Full Monty'' (1997), ''The World Is Not Enough'' (1999), ''Angela's Ashes'' (1999), '' The Beach'' (2000), ''28 Weeks Later'' (20 ...
as F.W. Colqhoun / Ives
*
David Arquette
David Arquette (born September 8, 1971) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise ''Scream'', for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster Enter ...
as Private Cleaves
*
Jeremy Davies
Jeremy Davies (né Boring; born October 8, 1969) is an American film and television actor. He is known for playing Ray Aibelli in ''Spanking the Monkey'' (1994), Corporal Upham in ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), Snow in ''Solaris'' (2002), Bil ...
as Private Toffler
*
Jeffrey Jones
Jeffrey Duncan Jones (born September 28, 1946) is an American character actor, best known for his roles as Emperor Joseph II in ''Amadeus'' (1984), Edward R. Rooney in ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), Charles Deetz in ''Beetlejuice'' (1988) ...
as Colonel Hart
* John Spencer as General Slauson
*
Stephen Spinella
Stephen Spinella (born October 11, 1956) is an American stage, television, and film actor.
Early life
Spinella was born in Naples, Italy, to a father who was an American naval airplane mechanic. He grew up in Glendale, Arizona, and graduated fr ...
as Major Knox
*
Neal McDonough
Neal McDonough (born February 13, 1966) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Lynn Compton, Lynn "Buck" Compton in the HBO miniseries ''Band of Brothers (miniseries), Band of Brothers'' (2001), Deputy District Attorney ...
as Private Reich
*
Joseph Runningfox
Joseph Runningfox (born 1955 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a Pueblo actor.
He was featured in '' Ravenous'' as George (credited as Joseph Running Fox) and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Runningfox played Geronimo in a 1993 television mov ...
as George
*
Sheila Tousey
Sheila May Tousey (born June 4, 1959) is a Native American actress.
Biography
Born in Keshena, Wisconsin in 1959, Tousey is a stage and film actress of Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee descent. She was raised on both Menominee and Stockbridge ...
as Martha
*
Bill Brochtrup
William Brochtrup Jr. (born March 7, 1963) is an American actor. He is known for his role playing PAA John Irvin, a gay police public assistant, on the ABC television drama '' NYPD Blue''.
Early life and education
Born William Brochtrup Jr. in ...
as Lindus
*
Fernando Becerril
Fernando Becerril is a Mexican actor. He has been cast in numerous Spanish language films since 1998.
Filmography
Becerril has played in the following theatrical and television films.Damián Delgado as Mexican Grenadier
* Tim Van Rellim as Mr. MacCready
* Miezi Sungu as Jones
*
David Heyman
David Jonathan Heyman (born 26 July 1961) is a British film producer and the founder of Heyday Films. Heyman secured the rights to the ''Harry Potter'' film series in 1999 and went on to produce all eight installments of the franchise. He als ...
as Mr. Janus
Production
The film was shot on location in the
Tatra Mountains
The Tatra Mountains (), Tatras, or Tatra (''Tatry'' either in Slovak language, Slovak () or in Polish language, Polish () - ''plurale tantum''), are a series of mountains within the Western Carpathians that form a natural border between Slovak ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
and Durango, Mexico. One week before production, original director
was said to have submitted new storyboards, which would have required additional two weeks of shooting.Directors Cut Anita M. Busch, EW.com, April 10, 1998; Accessed April 4, 2012 The production company,
Fox 2000
Fox 2000 Pictures was an American film production company within The Walt Disney Studios. It was a sister studio of the larger film studio 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures specializing in producing independent films in mid-range re ...
, eventually agreed to an additional week, with complaints that Manchevski had refused production meetings with the producers. Meanwhile, Manchevski complained Fox 2000 executive
Laura Ziskin
Laura Ellen ZiskinGale Research Company (2002). ''Contemporary theatre, film, and television,'' p. 388. Gale Research Co., (March 3, 1950 – June 12, 2011) was an American film producer, known as the executive producer of '' Pretty Woman'' (199 ...
micromanaged the production by vetoing his chosen technicians and casting against his wishes.
Shooting was delayed on the first day as Manchevski and the production were still negotiating over the production budget and shooting schedule. As filming commenced, Manchevski says Ziskin sent him notes on the rushes "every day", complaining about the amount of dirt on the costumes and the number of closeups.Film: They all but ate me alive! Roger Clarke, The Independent, March 9, 1999; Accessed April 4, 2012 Screenwriter
Ted Griffin
Ted Griffin (born December 21, 1970) is an American screenwriter whose credits include '' Ravenous'', ''Matchstick Men'', and ''Ocean's Eleven''.
Born in Pasadena, California, Griffin graduated from Colgate University in 1993. He was schedule ...
was at hand for "constant rewrites" during the shooting.
After three weeks of shooting, Ziskin arrived to the set with director
Raja Gosnell
Raja Raymond Gosnell (born December 9, 1958) is an American filmmaker and editor. He is best known for directing comedies including ''Never Been Kissed'', ''Big Momma's House'', and ''Scooby-Doo''. As well as family films including ''Home Alone ...
in tow to dismiss Manchevski and place Gosnell in as a replacement. While Manchevski left the production, the cast has been said to have rejected Gosnell. Robert Carlyle then recommended Antonia Bird, his frequent collaborator and business partner, to take over.
Following ten days of negotiations, Bird arrived in Prague to helm the production. She, too, would criticize the circumstances under which the filming was to take place, describing the allocated studio space as "horrible" and the scheduling of the shoot "manipulative". She also went on to say her predecessor, Manchevski, should not be blamed for the problematic production.
Bird suggests the final theatrical cut had elements introduced without her approval, as she expressed disdain over the voiceover narration and was interested in recutting the film for the European market.
This would be the last theatrical release to feature John Spencer.
Soundtrack
Reception
Box office
''Ravenous'' opened on March 19, 1999, in the United States in 1,040 cinemas, accumulating $1,040,727 over its opening weekend. It finished eighteenth for the weekend. The film went on to gross $2,062,405 in North America, far less than its reported $12 million budget.
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a 51% rating based on 65 reviews and an
average rating
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "''Ravenous'' tries bringing cannibal horror into an Old West setting, ending up with an uneven blend that will fail to satisfy most fans of either genre".
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
rated the film 3/4 stars and stated that it was "the kind of movie where you savor the texture of the filmmaking, even when the story strays into shapeless gore."
See also
* ''
Bone Tomahawk
''Bone Tomahawk'' is a 2015 American Western film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut. It stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, and Sid Haig ...
'', a 2015 Western cannibal horror film
* ''
Cannibal! The Musical
''Cannibal! The Musical'' (originally known as ''Alferd Packer: The Musical'') is a 1993 American black comedy musical film directed, written, produced, co-scored by and starring Trey Parker in his directorial debut while studying at the Univer ...
'', a 1996 black comedy musical that also tells the Packer story
*
Cannibalism in popular culture
Cannibalism, the act of eating human flesh, is a recurring theme in popular culture, especially within the horror genre, and has been featured in a range of media that includes film, television, literature, music and video games. Cannibalism has ...