Sleeper Cell: Ravenous (1999)

I was going to start this review out with a top 5 list of my favorite movies where people eat each other. Turns out though, outside of zombie/plague movies and Avocado Jungles of Death, it doesn’t really happen that often. And I refuse to include movies where people eat people without knowing they’re eating people – like Atreus and Thyestes in Greek mythology or that episode of Tales from the Crypt, where the new employee at the diner serves people-stew that’s uber-successful. Those don’t count. Who knows? Maybe audiences just don’t connect with that kind of thing, especially judging by how few people actually went to see Antonia Bird’s 1999 genius black comedy (written by Ted Griffin who also wrote the genius screenplay for the 2003 adaptation of Eric Garcia’s Matchstick Men). Ravenous, with a budget around $12 million, grossed a whopping 2 million dollars domestically, not even coming close to breaking even.

Our hero is John Boyd (Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert)): a military officer in the American army. The action opens on an award presentation to Lieutenant John Boyd for bravery and single-handedly capturing a Mexican fort during the Mexican-American War (placing the setting at 1847). However, in a flashback scene, we see in Boyd’s debriefing that he was able to infiltrate the Mexican base by playing possum while his soldiers are killed in action around him. He is loaded on a cart with the other dead bodies and wheeled inside the enemy walls. During his charade, blood from his men drips from their open wounds all over him, and because he can’t move under all the weight, he is forced to endure while it seeps into his mouth, the unexpected result of which is a kind of superhuman strength. Boyd digs himself out from under the burden and kills just un soldado Mexicano before accepting their surrender.

OTHER KIBBLES OF CANNIBALISM
The idea of strength through cannibalism is compared in the movie to the transfiguration of the host into the body and blood of Jesus Christ for the purposes of Christian communion. Fair enough. There is of course the Korowai tribe of Papua New Guinea who are the last known people on the planet Earth who still practice cannibalism and who refer to all outsiders as laleo (ghost-demons). Spooky. In the western world however, it’s generally accepted as boorish behavior to consume other human beings (except during Sunday mass of course).

So, having learned of Lieutenant Boyd’s cowardice of behavior, the colonel, being unable to hang Boyd out of fear of setting a bad precedent, instead promotes him to Captain and immediately transfers him to the backwater Fort Spencer located in the wintry Sierra Nevada Mountains where we meet the rest of our horror-movie miscreants.

CAST OF CHARACTERS!
Colonel Hart – Jeffrey Jones (Beetlejuice, Mom and Dad Save the World)
an educated and warm executive officer with a love of walnuts and foreign languages
Major Knox – Stephen Spinella (Virtuosity, Bubble Boy)
the obligatory, oft-intoxicated veterinarian-trained medical officer
Private Reich – Neal McDonough (Minority Report, Darkman)
resident over-enthusiastic soldier-boy
Private Toffler – Jeremy Davies (Nell, Teknolust)
oh so tragically twitchy and religiously-oriented sacrificial lamb
Private Cleaves – David Arquette (Eight Legged Freaks, Airheads)
a colonial pothead with a strangely trustworthy demeanor
George – Joseph Running Fox (Geronimo, Porky’s II: The Next Day)
the local native with expected specialties in tracking and archery
Martha – Sheila Tousey (Thunderheart, Skinwalkers)
George’s sister, the wise and silent voice of reason

Ok, before I go any further with plot or the “signal” that Danny Boyle believes is at the heart of all great space science-fiction (and which I believe extends itself through all great horror and adventure), some attention deserves to be directed towards the movie soundtrack. This has long been one of my favorite movies, and only recently have I noticed the soundtrack was performed by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn. According to Nyman, it was not a collaborative effort – he gives the breakdown as 60/40 in favor of Albarn. In all fairness, I’m much less familiar with Michael Nyman’s previous work. I am however an enormous fan of Damon Albarn’s. Albarn is the lead singer/songwriter of 3 of my absolute favorite musical acts: Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen (at least, those are the only three I know about). The movie theme is a genius mix of the familiar horror-y squeal of string chords, but slowly evolves into fairly upbeat banjo-led hillbilly-ish country fun. Music is so often responsible for the tone of a movie, and you should pay attention to this score, because without it, it would truly be a different movie.

This week’s underappreciated actor of the week:
Jeffrey Jones
For his consistently funny work in great movies like Howard the Duck, Stay Tuned and Who’s Harry Crumb? and his immortal performance as principal Edward R. Rooney in Ferris Buehler’s Day Off to his more serious work in Amadeus and The Hunt for Red October. Despite his legal troubles in the early 21st century, Jones remains one of my favorite B actors. God Bless You Dr. Joneswater.

Top 5 list of great actors with uncommonly common names:
5 – Patrick Wilson
4 – Robin Harris
3 – Joe Morton
2 – Jason Lee
1 – William Davis

William B. Davis as X-Files villain the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man

Danny Boyle mentions a signal that starts the downward spiral in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien and his own Sunshine as the inciting incident; that space horror or sci-fi horror always begins with a crew isolated in space receiving a transmission that requires them to go out of their way to begin the plot of the story. It’s a good theory for film history and worth looking into. The “signal” in the case of our period/western/horror/comedy, is the arrival of a stranger: a man who calls himself Mr. F. W. Colqhoun (crazy Brits are always trying to cheat at Scrabble) servant of God, played by Antonia Bird and Danny Boyle favorite, Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Weeks Later … I can’t ever actually stop calling him Begbie. Can you?) So Begbie wanders into the fort after having been out in the woods for weeks without food … but not without something to eat. He tells a sad tale of being led astray in the wilderness by a guide named Colonel Ives. Their wagon train becomes lost in the mountains, and they take up refuge in a mountain cave. As the weeks pass and they exhaust their food supplies, the travelers resort to eating their oxen and ultimately their dog. As they continue to choke down their leather belts and shoes, their health diminishes as their desperation grows. So, when finally a member of their party succumbs to starvation, he is grilled and Begbie, though hating himself for the happiness he feels, rejoices at the fresh meat. Colonel Ives on the other hand, has slipped into a madness that sees him kill off his companions for more meat. He has become what George calls, the Wendigo; he is a man who has grown to love the taste of human flesh, and will never be able to eat enough and will never stop. Did I mention it’s a comedy?

Upon hearing this, Captain Boyd’s fears intensify as he believes he might also have become a Wendigo during his misfortunes at war. And while he appeals to Martha about a possible cure, comes to realize that there may never be any abating to his appetite.

!!WARNING!!
For examples of other animals which prey on homo sapiens; DO NOT enter “human predators” in your Google search bar you will not find what you are hoping for and will most likely be placed on an unsavory watch list.

As Begbie wraps up his tale of woe, we hear how there may yet be one female survivor holed up with Ives who would be in mortal danger. Colonel Hart wastes no time in organizing a rescue party with Begbie serving as their guide back to the cave of terrors.

TOP 5 MOVIES with a director named after an animal:
5 – American Psycho – Mary Harron
4 – Igby Goes Down – Burr Steers
3 – Vanilla Sky – Cameron Crowe
2 – Pan’s Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro
1 – Iron Giant – Brad Bird

Memorable Quotes:
“Eat to live. Don’t live to eat.” – Colonel Ives
“That was really… sneaky.” – Colonel Ives
Don’t worry – they’re really funny and much more memorable in context.

You could call Ravenous a black comedy (it really is supposed to be humorous) or a horror or a drama or whatever you want. It’s sometimes goofy (in terms of Major Knox’s John Q. Plantation southern accent), sometimes genuinely scary (Begbie ’s freakish behavior upon re-finding the beleaguered cave), and sometimes incredibly dramatic (when Captain Boyd finds himself faced with the prospect of again eating human flesh). It’s a great movie that might have been overlooked in the same way Michael J. Fox’s The Frighteners was overlooked: audiences don’t seem to know what to do when faced with a comedy that can be legitimately frightening. In the mean-time Ravenous has become a kind of cult hit (as seems the destiny of successful movies that don’t successfully find an early audience) and has me wondering whether or not Antonia Bird is the honest vegetarian she claims to be.

Recent posts by Zack

• Sleeper Cell: Desperation (2006) - August 27th, 2010
• Sleeper Cell: Bloody Mallory (2002) - August 20th, 2010
• Sleeper Cell: Romeo and Juliet (1966) - August 13th, 2010
• Trailer: The Illusionist - August 11th, 2010
• Sleeper Cell: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982) - August 6th, 2010

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