Ravenous

Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: June 3rd, 2014.
Director: Antonia Bird
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Guy Pearce, Jeffrey Jones
Year: 1999
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The Movie:

Directed by the late Antonia Bird, 1999's Ravenous is set in the 1800s and follows Captain Boyd (Guy Pearce), a cowardly veteran of the Mexican-American war who is shipped out to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to serve at Fort Spencer. See, Boyd was initially lauded as a hero when he singlehandedly took an enemy outpost after his troops were all slaughtered… but word got back to his commanding officer that they only reason he survived was because he hid. Let there be no doubt that his being sent to Fort Spencer is punishment.

When he arrives, he meets the other men stationed there, most of whom are a little odd. The man in charge is Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones), and he seems to have more or less given up on life while their scout, George (Joseph Runningfox), seems unusually paranoid. Also on hand are Chaplain Toffler (Jeremy Davies), a soldier named Reich (Neal McDonaugh), a stoned cook named Cleaves (David Arquette) and a hard drinking guy named Knox (Stephen Spinella). When a stranger named Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) arrives completely out of nowhere one night, he tells them about a run in with Colonel Ives, a cannibal responsible for the disappearance of a wagon train lost in the mountains. Hart decides to put together a search and rescue team of sorts and to head out into the mountains to find any survivors. Colqhoun reluctantly agrees to accompany him while George warns anyone who will listen about 'the Wendigo,' but of course, Colqhoun is not who he appears to be and Boyd and all of the other men at Fort Spencer soon find themselves in very dire straits indeed.

Written by Ted Griffin, Ravenous takes some completely unexpected but very welcome twists into some remarkably dark territory as its plot moves towards its conclusion. Far from a typical horror movie the script and characterizations are rich with pitch black humor and the way in which Griffin and Bird incorporate this into some genuinely horrific sequences is skillful and consistently impressive. There are different layers of allegory to all of this that create something considerably more elaborate than the original promotional materials designed to advertise the film ever alluded to (they consisted mostly of the infamous 'HE WAS LICKING MEEEEEE' bit). All of this is complimented by beautiful location photography, the kind that really helps to create the perfect mood of isolation for the story to play off of and an insanely quirky (yet entirely appropriate) score from Blur frontman Daman Alburn.

Of course, this wouldn't matter as much if the performances weren't all that they need to be but the movie comes out on top in that regard too. Say what you will about Jeffrey Jones but he's great here and it's interesting to watch him transform his character as the movie evolves. Guy Pearce manages to infuse in his character some believable cowardly naiveté and he also turns in great work. The real start of the show, however, is Robert Carlyle whose mysterious character becomes one of incredible evil, but at the same time, proves to be a source of very effective humor. Carlyle's career may be uneven but here he's at the top of his game.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Ravenous arrives on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory framed properly in its original 2.35.1 widescreen aspect ratio in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. While color reproduction is reasonably good despite some murkiness here and there, detail is beyond soft. Edge enhancement, or at least what looks like edge enhancement, appears throughout the transfer and there are contrast issues causing the bright whites of the snowy exteriors to bloom like crazy. Skin tones look waxy and generally the picture quality here is disappointing. Shout! did issue this statement on their Facebook page regarding the transfer…

“We saw a lot of talk about it this weekend unfortunately and we haven't been ignoring it. (Quite frankly, this is our first day back in the office and its been quite busy - Sleepaway Camp and House in the Alley both releasing today, amongst other projects in the works.) We asked FOX about it, who supplied us with the HD transfer, and their response was as follows:
'This was transferred directly from IP and 2 track stereo comp sources. There is no indication that noise reduction was employed, however some sort of DRS/VIP clean-up was used'”

…so take that as you will. So Fox obviously gave them a lousy master to work with and that was that. However it's hard not to be disappointed with the video quality here. Ravenous is a beautifully shot film loaded with fantastic location photography and bold use of color. That doesn't come through here the way that it should. Some shots do look better than others and there are spots where legitimate high definition clarity comes through, but they're infrequent. The previous DVD release was a non-anamorphic transfer and this does improve on that in many ways but it fails to really take advantage of what Blu-ray can really do in the visuals department.

The disc does score good marks for the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track, however. Presented in the film's native English, it demonstrates good use of all channels particularly when it comes to the placement of the film's unique score. There are no issues with any hiss or distortion and the film's dialogue comes through quite clearly. Levels are nicely balanced and there's some decent bass response audible in the lower end of the mix. An optional English DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track is included as are optional English closed captions.

Carried over from the old DVD release is a commentary with director Antonia Bird and composer Damon Albarn. It's a good track that finds Bird filling us in with a lot of details on what it was like during the production, issues that she ran into during the short, working with the cast and crew on the picture and more. Albarn doesn't have as much to say but he does offer up some interesting insight into his creative process and what he was going for with the score. Also carried over from the DVD are a commentary with screenwriter Ted Griffin and actor Jeffrey Jones and a commentary with Actor Robert Carlyle. These are also decent tracks worth listening to but there's a fair bit of dead air in the Griffin/Jones track even if it does offer up some welcome information about Griffin's inspiration and writing process. The Carlyle track also has some dead air here and there and might have been better had the actor had someone to play off of here as when he starts talking, he's quite interesting. All three tracks have their merits, however, and between the three of them there's quite a bit of worthwhile content here. The Blu-ray also carries over the DVD's twelve minutes worth of Deleted Scenes that include optional commentary from Antonia Bird, though they get an HD upgrade here. There are interesting to see and Bird's commentary gives them some context and explains why they didn't wind up being used.

New to the disc is a twenty-minute interview with actor Jeffrey Jones, who speaks on camera about his experiences working on the film, his thoughts on the picture and some of the allegory behind what is portrayed in the film. It's quite interesting and worth watching. Rounding out the extras are the film's original theatrical trailer, an isolated Music And Effects Track, a TV Spot, two Still Galleries (one for Costume Design and another for Production Design), animated menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:


Ravenous is, for this writer's money, one of the best and most original horror films of the nineties. Rarely can pitch black comedy and bizarre horror movie motifs work together as well as they do here, performed by a fantastic cast and complimented by a score just quirky enough to fit perfectly. Shout! Factory haven given the film a nice lossless audio upgrade, carried over all of the supplements from the DVD and thrown in some new content too. It's just a shame that the transfer didn't turn out better than it has.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!