5 out of 5

Director: Antonia Bird

I still haven’t seen a movie exactly like Ravenous. It’s gorgeous mostly, and darkly funny, and just ridiculously interesting… but that 5 stars comes from its uniqueness more than anything. The main concept here isn’t anything brand new to the horror genre: kill a man, absorb his power. Except each end of that equation is given a bump: eat a man, absorb his spirit… heal faster, live longer, move quicker, get stronger… all good stuff. And even the setup isn’t a general arrangement you haven’t seen before, sort of a ‘boy who cried wolf’: Pearce plays a disgraced soldier who is promoted to captain and shunted off to an isolated California outpost in lieu of explaining that a recent victory for his side was actually due to an act of cowardice. When Pearce suspects someone at the new outpost of cannibalism, his recent arrival and character prevent his claims from being taken seriously. If you’ve seen it, you know that’s a poor summary. Oh well. Here’s what is awesome in the movie: The score, the themes, the visuals and the acting are so rich that you feel everything in a new way. It’s not horror, it’s not comedy or thriller, there’s something slightly upbeat about the terror, there’s something slightly offbeat about everything. Some of it is choppy, director Antonia Bird may not be adept at action, but after several viewings and over a decade, I still haven’t seen anything quite like this. Any genre purist might shrug at Ravenous, but if you seek those weird genre experiments, give this film a shot.