Ravenous (1999)

Better late than never - I thought that Ravenous would be a good film to review on the Thanks giving weekend…
Ravenous is a 1999 Horror movie directed by Antonia bird with a great cast - Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle and Jeffery Jones.

The Plot in a nutshell happens in the time of the Mexican American War (1846-1848), When a United States Army officer, Lieutenant Boyd, got a promotion for infiltrating and capturing the Mexican Headquarters near a battle ground where his whole unit was slaughtered, all except for him, who avoided being killed by  playing dead.

He get a promotion for his heroism, but after his commanding officer realizes what a coward he really is, he transfers him to the remote Fort Spencer in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
There he is met with the big question - Eat dinner or be dinner?

The seven other occupants at Fort Spencer are an interesting but quite dismal crown and include George and his sister local American Indians who came with the place, a dweeb like missionary a drugged up cook, a drunken doctor and an alpha male soldier, as if Fort Spencer was the place to banish all the wartime washouts to.
Anyway, shortly after Byod arrives, a frost bitten stranger named Colqhoun arrives, and recuperates from his frost bite surprisingly quickly after being bathed.
He tell a terrible story about a Wagon train being trapped in the snow and being reduced to cannibalism to avoid starvation.
Apparently, the Wagon trains leader seems to have lead them astray purposefully in order to indulge himself in cannibalism.

This connects with the Native American myth of the Wendigo - which claims that a man eating the flesh of his enemies will gain their strength and spirit but will turn into a blood thirsty demon craving human flesh.
Anyhow, once they reach the cave, it turns out that Colqhoun is really Colonel Ives (the cannibal) who tricked the soldiers into the cave and there he consumes them one by one, the only one to escape is Boyde, who breaks his leg while attempting escape, and finds himself in a pit with the cadaver of an American soldier who he ends up snacking on to avoid starvation.
The plot thinkens from her and I won’t spoil it for you, but I will quote Sunset Gun who says

Using monsters as a metaphor for homosexuality can run the risk of offending, but Ravenous celebrates its deviants with gory, full bodied, beautiful radiance. Thanks partially to an inspired performance by Carlyle, Colqhoun is a heroic outlaw — a man, who, in a world of hypocrites, could very well (and this gives nothing away) die for his desire. Unexpected, and good, more than good — good eating — Ravenous is a brilliantly bloody turn-on.

Bon Apatite