Review of Ravenous (1999) by Dillinger P — 23 Feb 2014

As this tale begins there is a real sense of horror and dementedly weird occurrences going on, with some real peculiar themes and feelings going on I thought I was in for a pleasant treat. then after half an hour it completely falls off the side of mount Everest without a parachute.

Guy Pearce plays a war vet during 1847, after being recognised for single handedly going through a traumatic war and turning the tides on the Mexican army he is given a medal and shoved at an outpost in the middle of nowhere.

he meets some bizarre comrades and before we know it bobby Carlisle turns up with tales of cannibalism and horror. conveniently the small group of soldiers make their way up the mountains to find out what bobby's going on about and within the blink of an eye.

.. the film just slowly guts itself from the inside till there is so little left you just don't care. Let's take the acting for example, Guy Pearce is obviously outstanding but then a torrent of demented recondnisables just off set the balance.

it begins to get comedic with some of the performances and your sense of unease withers and dies. bobby is ok as the mental cannibalistic Scotsman but by the time he tries to shine the story is so ludicrous that he's over shadowed.

the music, by Damon alburn, you would think would be fitting, however they get it so tonaly wrong that one chase sequence looks like a Benny hill sketch. then the almighty twist at the end is so preposterous and is clearly there to make the film longer.

instead of sticking with brutality and subtly and making this an unnerving epic, the film goes for stupidity and complete absurdity that your left laughing at the missed opportunity of the entire thing.