Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 343: Thu Dec 11

Ravenous (Bird, 1999): Nickel Cinema, 8.30pm

Time Out review:
This peculiar, funny addition to the already out-there cannibal sub-genre is your basic black-comedy horror Western with metaphorical overtones. Call it Dances with Werewolves. The year is 1847. Fresh from the Mexican American war, Capt John Boyd (Guy Pearce) is transferred to a remote, sparsely populated army fort in the high Nevadas. Hot on his heels comes the stricken figure of a Scot, Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle), with a cannibal tale to chill even the bravest of them. Colqhoun escaped, hoping to save the last of the women, so Boyd and Colonel Hart (JeffreyJones) lead a rescue party with Colqhoun as guide. What they encounter is more terrifying than they ever imagined. Antonia Bird (Priest) was the third director on what was evidently a troubled shoot, and it's not a neat and tidy piece of work. But whoever wanted a neat, tidy comic horror Western? Carlyle acts his socks off, Pearce endures against terrible odds, and the action is confidently handled. As bizarre as its Michael Nyman-Damon Albarn bluegrass score, this is a gourmet dish for midnight movie ghouls.
Tom Charity

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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