Ravenous (1999)

Director: AntoniaBird

Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, John Spencer, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, Joseph Runningfox, Bill Brochtrup, Sheila Tousey

More info: IMDb

Tagline: You are who you eat

Plot: Captain John Boyd receives a promotion after defeating the enemy command in a battle of the Mexican-American War, but because the general realizes it was an act of cowardice that got him there, he is given a backhanded promotion to Fort Spencer, where he is third in command. The others at the fort are two Indians, George and his sister, Martha, who came with the place, Chaplain Toffler, Reich, the soldier; Cleaves, a drugged-up cook; and Knox, who is frequently drunk. When a Scottish stranger named Colquhoun appears and recovers from frostbite almost instantly after being bathed, he tells a story about his party leader, Ives, eating members of the party to survive. As part of their duty, they must go up to the cave where this occurred to see if any have survived. Only Martha, Knox, and Cleaves stay behind. George warns that since Colquhoun admits to eating human flesh, he must be a Wendigo, a ravenous cannibalistic creature.

My rating: 10/10

Will I watch it again? Of course!

When this hit theaters I was away on a business trip for a little over a week.  When I returned it was gone.  It didn't last long in that town and I was bummed out.  Trailer looked fantastic.  The bumminging worsened after I finally saw it on DVD and I was so blown away by it that it was killing me that I missed it in the theater.  Oh, well.  I've seen it many times since and I've watched the extras, listened to the commentaries and the soundtrack.  Besides the craziness of the story and performances and Antonia Bird's clever direction, it's the brilliant and odd score by Mychael Nyman and Damon Albarn that brings it alive and in a big way.  It was strange to grasp the first time but it grew on me and I kept thinking about it long after.  I bought the soundtrack and spun it like mad and it quickly became one of my favorites.