Friday, May 02, 2008
GENRE-XPLOSION: SUPER-POWERED CANNIBALS!
Genre-xplosion is a short, spoiler free introduction to some of the strange and obscure movies and comics that I enjoy. Some of them are brilliant masterpieces... some of them aren't. All of them are entertaining.
RAVENOUS (1999)
Super-powered Cannibals
Directed- Antonia Bird
Written- Ted Griffin
STYLE: ****
SUBSTANCE: ****
BLOOD/GORE: ****
NUDITY: ****
Scale built on quantity, not quality.
SET-UP:
Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is transferred to Fort Spenser, a place for unwanted misfits in the military, during the Mexican-American War. Soon after his arrival, the inhabitants of the fort find a man (Robert Carlyle) outside in the snow who has come to the them for help. His traveling party has been trapped in cave for three months with no food and their guide, the heinous Col. Ives, has begun murdering members of the party and eating them. Several members from Fort Spenser travel to the cave to rescue any survivors and deal with Ives, whom the local Indian believes has become a Wendigo, a man who eats the flesh of another man and gains his strengths, steals his spirit and becomes insatiable.
SEX AND VIOLENCE:
There is very little nudity in this film besides a quick shot of naked man rump. On the contrast there are copious amounts of blood, bone and guts, all of which are handled in a very realistic manner and not played up for exploitive reasons.
THOUGHTS:
RAVENOUS (1999)
Super-powered Cannibals
Directed- Antonia Bird
Written- Ted Griffin
STYLE: ****
SUBSTANCE: ****
BLOOD/GORE: ****
NUDITY: ****
Scale built on quantity, not quality.
SET-UP:
Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is transferred to Fort Spenser, a place for unwanted misfits in the military, during the Mexican-American War. Soon after his arrival, the inhabitants of the fort find a man (Robert Carlyle) outside in the snow who has come to the them for help. His traveling party has been trapped in cave for three months with no food and their guide, the heinous Col. Ives, has begun murdering members of the party and eating them. Several members from Fort Spenser travel to the cave to rescue any survivors and deal with Ives, whom the local Indian believes has become a Wendigo, a man who eats the flesh of another man and gains his strengths, steals his spirit and becomes insatiable.
There is very little nudity in this film besides a quick shot of naked man rump. On the contrast there are copious amounts of blood, bone and guts, all of which are handled in a very realistic manner and not played up for exploitive reasons.
THOUGHTS:
Ravenous is a brilliantly unique type of film. As soon as I got halfway into it, I realized I had never seen a movie like this before. It flawlessly weaves together a satirical commentary on man's selfish desire to consume, regardless of anyone or anything else, with a very thrilling and well paced storyline peppered with small bits of dark comedy. All of this is accentuated with a haunting score by Damon Albarn (Blur) and Michael Nyman that is repeated throughout the picture. I can only imagine that this movie is not more well known because of its trailer, which portrays the film as a goofy comedy about cannibalism. It really has much more depth than that. It's an amazing movie with a rich, wonderfully portrayed, cast of characters. If you like brainy horror films that deliver sharp wit along with biting terror, I suggest you check it out.
Labels: genre-xplosion
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I had never seen it before. Marlena made me watch it as I usually don't like cannibal flicks. But it was amazing!
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