The Horror genre is loaded with master filmmakers who made a home with this type of material, releasing numerous variations of what they excel at. Then there are the ones who only made one or two of these films, and because of that there’s a danger to the films because you don’t know if they’re in command of the tone or if they might go too far. Ravenous is definitely from that 2nd group. From the first notes of the score by Michael Nyman (The Piano) and Damon Albarn there’s a, “Wait, did they mean to do that?” quality to the film. Ravenous doesn’t sound or look like other movies—for better and for worse. That eccentricity helps once it becomes clearer that Ravenous is a realistic historical drama, with all the period-accurate detail, and also a supernatural cannibal fantasy.
Critically panned when it was first released, Ravenous has stood the test of time because it’s an extremely bloody film that manages to be highly entertaining in a deliciously nasty way. Some scenes are played for scares, and they’re also played for laughs. The film generates a lot of tension, there are exciting confrontations and it looks great. The cast is eclectic and remarkable, with Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, John Spencer and David Arquette
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