Rating: 
Summary: Stupid Scary
Review: Labeled by some reviewers as a dark comedy and a cannibal gore-fest... I choose neither. Sure, there was plenty of fake blood going on, but nothing over the top as far as the "gore" factor goes. I mean, it's not like you see characters chomping down on arms and legs or scooping out brains and feasting on them... you simply see the men sitting down to some Dinty Moore stew and you are led to believe there's human meat in there. Outside of a few foul words, this movie is borderline PG rating. I like Guy Pearce as Capt John Boyd, despite his choosing roles of the not-so-smart (i.e. Memento, Time Machine, Count Of Monte Cristo). Guy has yet to find his breakout character. Robert Carlyle soon becomes annoying as Colonel Ives. How Ives can survive a gunshot blast to the upper chest and still walk around like nothing's happened is... I guess Hollywood at its best trying to convince you of a story taking place involving starving pioneers expanding westward in the mid 1800's in a cold desolate fort in the Sierra Nevadas. David Arquette is mentioned in the trailer and is given 3rd billing (in name), but he too picks the role of idiot. He has only a few lines and is killed without much ado. Jeffrey Jones (from Beetlejuice and Ferris Bueller fame) is above average as Col. Hart and I really believe his character is capable of the wrong-doings of cannibalism. This DVD comes with minimal extras (trailer, commentary, deleted scenes) and most major stores all ready have this one on the bargain rack. Some nice scenery, some odd music in the background for much of the film, a few good lines from Carlyle earn this film a lofty two stars. People reviewing this film saying it's awesome and a soon-to-be cult classic... be serious... this was pure cinematic drudgery to get through. You've been warned. Replay value = None.
Rating: 
Summary: want to convert to vegetarianism?
Review: I saw in the pro reviews that this movie had mistakenly been passed for dark comedy and flopped anyway. I understand it. This movie flopped because it's very very special and is not appealing for a large audience. I discovered this movie by chance and mistake : I was with a friend who loves cinema and we wanted to see a movie, this one was on show, and we chose it by chance (well, maybe *she* had heard of it or of the realisator). It was a shock. This film may have some humor, but it is first and foremost gore, heck, it made a major meat eater like me a vegetarian for a fortnight. well, this said, it is excellently made, and I enjoyed it tremendously. it does show a very interesting angle on cannibalism, and I think I remember something about the legend of the Wendigo. (heck, I wish I could see it again, but I got no budget for DVDs, want to gift me with it?). For the strong of stomach, but a real good piece
Rating: 
Summary: TrezKu13 to filmmakers: "Eat me."
Review: The start of this film was interesting to me. It had a surprising comedic feel to it, cool characters, and a nice 1840's American west setting. Unfortunately, like so many of these movies, the movie stops being good once the story begins... When the cannibalistic villain turns on the five characters (including hero Guy Pierce) escorting him through the mountains, the fight scene was so badly choreographed I wanted to stop watching the film. Some how eating flesh not only made the villain strong, it also made him an excellent marksman and dagger thrower. I might also add he manages to kill one of the other characters only because of this: the person - who has a loaded rifle and the villain is unarmed and a few feet from him - chooses to DROP HIS RIFLE AND RUN. It gets worse after this little scene, when Guy Pierce returns to the camp. The general in command of the area comes by and appoints a new commander to the base...who Guy Pierce thinks is the villain. Here I regained interest in the movie: I thought that the film was going to question Guy Pierce's sanity and eventually our hero would be revealed as the real cannibal. Nope! It IS the villain! So some one please tell me how, within approximately 48 hours time, the villain went from being unkempt, covered in human blood, eating people in a cave some where in the mountains...to being in a nice uniform, clean-shaved, and on such good terms with the general that the latter will entrust him with a mountain outpost? Maybe I'm being too hard on the movie...or maybe I just expect better scripts. Big surprise, the villain starts killing the others in the base one by one, blah blah blah...then the final showdown. Don't worry, the usual tradition of incoherent fight scenes continues. The villain is laying on the ground wounded and dazed with a small dagger in his hand, but instead of grabbing a nearby sword and impaling him Guy Pierce gets down on the ground and gets in a close quarter fight with him. HUH?! Captain Kirk knew how to fight better! And what's the deal with the music? It went from being video poker music to harmonica music, then back to the poker. In the words of Joe Bob Briggs, "I don't think I'll be watching this movie again any time soon." Some one called this a cannibal movie for "smart people." That must mean I'm the dumbest man in the world. 2+2=5
Rating: 
Summary: Not what expected...
Review: When I saw this movie, there were only three more people in the theater besides me. So I thought that I made a wrong decision entering the theater and wasted my money. I expected to be the worst movie ever.
Guess what? This movie is one of the best suspense movies I ever saw! I would rank it third just after The Exorcist and The Shinning. It has all the good ingredients; suspense, action, horror, comedy and I agree with most of the reviewers an excellent sound track that makes the movie even eerier!!
I don't understand why such a great movie didn't make it in the Box Office... it seems that nowadays to make it, it must have matrix-like effects!
Anyway, I bought this movie in DVD and I have watched it like 6 times and it's still as fresh as when I first saw it. I can't have enough of Ravenous... for all suspense-horror fans, this is a must!
Rating:
Summary: You Are Who You Eat
Review: Ravenous... what an underrated, under-appreciated, unknown masterwork of a horror film. Peppered with great performances by Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle. Seasoned with a quirky yet haunting soundtrack. Spiced with ultra-violence. And topped off with some very entrancing cinematography. It's too bad this film did so poorly at the box-office. Seems to me, this film is too intelligent for the mainstream anyway. Most little babies on here couldn't even stomach the violence/gore. And because of that, they dismissed the movie all together. Morons. Ravenous was one of the reasons the 90's weren't completely void of decent horror films. Just gets cooler with every viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I saw this on cable and needed to get my own copy, that's how good I think it is.
I especially adore Robert Carlyle, or his character rather....It's a delicious blend of horror and dark humor. About the Native American legend of the Wendigo, a supernatural entity with an unsatiable appetite for human flesh. Robert Carlyle plays the Weendigo. He's a man who hears that consuming human flesh might restore his failing health, and decides to test the legend. With extraordinary and scary results. By eating human flesh he can recover from even the most fatal of wounds.
Possessed by a ravenous appetite he turns up as the traumatized only survivor of a band of pioneers which elasped into horror, when they were snowed-in a cave, without food. Guy Pearce, plays Captain John Boyd, a soldier who served in the Mexican-American war of 1847, during battle he froze with fear and played dead, that way he was able to get behind enemy lines and take over from that side. He's given an award for bravery, but since the brass know about his cowardice he's sent, ashamed and haunted by nightmares to Fort Spencer in California, in cold February. The fort serves as a way station for travelers. At the fort there are only 8 people including Captain Boyd. Private Toffler (Jeremy Davies), who's the religious emissary at the fort, Major Knox (Stephen Spinella), who's dead drunk most of the time, Lieutenant Reich (Neal McDonough) who's kind of a crazed soldier/ rambo type, 2 Native Americans: Martha and her brother George (Sheila Tousey and Joseph Running Fox), Private Cleaves (David Arquette) who cooks and goofs off and Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones) who's in charge. On his first night, a mysterious traveler shows up, with a terrible tale of cannibalism. When they investigate, horror ensues. Excellent performances, wonderfrul script, beautiful cinematography, some fun dark humor. Robert Carlyle's fascinating in his characters transformation from supposedly traumatised survivor, to wild predator to super suave gentleman. Either way he's delectable. ;-) I really like the music too.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant, Horrific Social Critique
Review: John Boyd finds himself in a distinctly unenviable position at the beginning of "Ravenous." Boyd, an army officer recently promoted for heroism in the Mexican War, is really a coward at heart. During action in that campaign, the young officer folded in the face of enemy fire, a deed that cost the lives of several of his men. Left for dead in a pile of bloody corpses by Mexican soldiers, Boyd managed to pull himself together and capture an enemy command post. Rather than have a supposed "hero" shot for dishonorable activities, an act that may not have the best results on general morale, the general commanding the army exiles Boyd to an out of the way heap of sticks in the wilds of California called Fort Spencer. Perhaps Captain Boyd should have fought bravely in Mexico because what he runs up against in California is enough to make the hardiest soul cry for his mother. "Ravenous" as a film slices across so many genre boundaries that it is difficult in the extreme to classify it. At turns gross out horror, serious drama, and social critique, even the studio had an impossible task while marketing this project. I vividly remember the television spots for "Ravenous," and at the time I couldn't make heads or tails of what this movie was about. When Boyd arrives at Fort Spencer, he quickly discovers that he now lives in a place inhabited by various castoffs from the military. There is the commanding officer of the place, Colonel Hart, a bookish figure who spends his time reading Plato in the original Greek while cracking walnuts on his desk with a huge tome. Major Knox serves as the fort physician even though his training is in veterinary science. His favorite activity is drinking himself into unconsciousness every chance he gets. The preacher of the outfit looks like he would be more at home wandering the back alleys of a cesspool, as does the perpetually dense Private Cleaves. The only guy with any backbone in the outfit is the soldierly Private Reich, one of those gung ho types so annoying to people just trying to take it easy. Rounding out this bunch of miscreants are two local Indians. Director Antonia Bird does a marvelous job of fleshing out each one of these characters with a minimum of time and effort, but ultimately the stellar cast makes each of these unique individuals come alive. I won't go any further than mentioning the absolute majesty of Robert Carlyle's performance as Colquhoun. His telling of that gruesome story around the campfire never loses its intensity no matter how many times you watch the film. The cast in "Ravenous" is simply spectacular. Shortly after Boyd arrives at Fort Spencer, a straggler nearly dying of malnourishment wanders into the camp. Introducing himself as an itinerant preacher named Colquhoun, he tells a riveting story of murder, madness, and cannibalism to the fort personnel. It seems Colquhoun and a party of settlers failed to get out of the mountains before the winter storms set in, and after several miserable weeks slowly starving in a cave the settlers began eating one another in order to survive. Hart decides he must follow up on this strange story by launching an expedition into the surrounding mountains to look for the cave. "Ravenous" takes off like a jet plane at this point, as the expedition discovers a few shocking secrets about Colquhoun during the course of their mission. Apparently, the preacher became what the local Indians refer to as a Wendigo, a man transmogrified into a ravenous creature after devouring human flesh. Now Boyd and company must deal with the fallout from their encounter with this eerie being. The movie takes so many twists and turns from this discovery onwards that it would be a crime if I should spoil it for you. If Bird had decided to just make this a cannibal picture, it still would have entertained the horror crowd. Fortunately, she decided to use Algernon Blackwood's Wendigo legend as a thinly veiled metaphor for what the American government did in the western part of the continent during the nineteenth century. At one point during the film, Colquhoun crows to Boyd about the idea of "manifest destiny" and how the settlers will pour into California as soon as spring arrives, at which time the cannibals will feed off these hapless dupes. Why not tie the eating of human flesh with the economic appetites of the American people? Modern day Indians certainly could tell a tale or two about this seemingly disparate comparison. The DVD version of "Ravenous" fires on all cylinders. Not only do you get the movie in widescreen, you also get THREE commentary tracks, a trailer, deleted scenes with and without commentary, an easter egg, and storyboards about how the crew made the character's outfits and built Fort Spencer. Filming took place in Slovakia, of all places, and the scenery awes with its sweeping mountains and deep forests. My only complaint with the disc concerns the absence of separate audio tracks for the Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn soundtrack. Imagine a mix of folksy banjo with modern techno music and you have an idea of this film's intriguing aural backdrop. The fusion of these two odd musical genres might concern some people, but don't worry because the soundtrack works wonders in "Ravenous," often making a terrifying scene even creepier by infinite degrees. Bird's little film may well be one of the best films of the 1990s, and is certainly one of the best horror films of that decade. As flavorful as the special stew Colquhoun cooks up for his fellow cannibals, "Ravenous" will continue to win fans for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Yum
Review: I'm not gonna say anything that hasn't already been said, but I guess I'd better put my two cents in. Yes, this is certainly one of the best movies to come out in recent years. It bombed at the box office(naturally), though it only had a limited relesase in your local arthouse theater. This movie is quite unique because it takes B movie subject matter and lifts it to the next level through great performances, writing and directing. I guess you could say a B+ or A- movie. It's always wonderful to have a movie like this sneak it's way onto screens among all the Hollywood "horror" garbage out there-LIKE REMAKES OF THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE AND SUCH!!! The sad thing is, nobody will see this film unless they take a gamble at the video store or have a creepy friend into "weird" movies to suggest it to them. This movie's one fun ride of gruesomness and dark humor. In fact, for the first fifteen minutes you're unsure if the film's supposed to be a comedy or not, then you're slammed with some very intense violence. The film puts a bit of the supernatural(for lack of a better word) into the whole cannibalism mythology-makes cannibalism part of Native american folklore. A strange idea that eating human flesh can make you superhuman, heal injuries, and become addictive. Far fetched for sure, but who knows? Are you about to try and see if there's truth to that? Do you hang out with cannibal tribes? The two leads give two of the best performances of their careers but will never be recognized for it. A pity. But, this fantastic movie is available on dvd for a very reasonable price for all y'all to enjoy. So enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Cannibalism has never been so tasty...
Review: I laughed, I screamed, I was enetertained. I really liked this movie. Didn't know what it was about when I rented it, but I figure I should watch it. The movie takes place in the 1800s after the american/mexican war, and it's about cannibals. That's all you need to know really. I'm afraid I may spoil some good plot points.
Rating:
Summary: bloody great
Review: We all know this one bombed at the box office and few good celebs thought this one was good like Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert and I do as well. I liked it from beginning to end. Cannibalism is great in this movie and it sets up the feeling of a hungry guy. Carlyle and Pearce's battle at the end is the treat with them sticking any weapon into one another. a great story told and a funny performance by Arquette, though he dies here and I hope im not spoiling this for someone
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