Ravenous (1999) – WTF Happened to This Horror Movie?

The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Ravenous was Written by Emilie Black, Narrated by Travis Hopson, Edited by Victoria Verduzco, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

1999, a year of hope, a year of high fashion, nooo, no… 1999, the year when people prepared for Y2K, the year of all the odd choices when it came to fashion, and the year of interesting cinematic options. We got The Mummy which gave us all the hot cast members we could ask for and still gives us memes, we got End of Days, Stigmata, Idle Hands, House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting, Stir of Echoes, and The Blair Witch Project. It was a year for surprising hits, shocking failures, and offbeat horror films. So many smaller budgets did so well. Also out in 1999 was this movie about cannibalism in the olden days of the United States, Ravenous (watch it HERE). Almost a quarter of a century later, the film is well remembered by most who saw it and seemingly unknown to a large group of movie watchers. It’s a film that still seems to fall through the cracks. But why? This film had the usual marketing, trailers, magazines features, promotional interviews, etc. But then it came out and had zero impact. Yep, zero impact. The budget for Ravenous was about $12 million and it made just about $2 million at the box office, being a giant flop by any metric. Granted, it did get some of its budget back on the home video front, but that was over months and even years of rentals and sales, meaning that overall, the film was not a good investment and is seen as a flop to this day. So, what happened here?

Well, let’s start with the subject of the film. The story here is loosely based on the Donner Party, taking it in the obvious horror direction by going with cannibalism as to how members survived. Of course, the historical facts are about as much fact as most of these types of movies. The story takes a lot of liberties and really makes the most of the premise and question “What would have happened if they went the cannibalism route?” Of course, there is influence here of the Alfred Packer story, a man who supposedly survived on cannibalism which has now been basically debunked. Here, it’s one of those might have been part of the story, might be a coincidence, but given how much Robert Carlyle’s Col. Ives looks like the images we’ve seen of Packer in pop culture, it feels like his selection for the part and his look must not have been an accident. Of course, to horror fans, cannibalism sounds like a swell story for a movie. Oh, and throw in the lore of the Wendigo, recounted in the film, connecting the story to it, and it gives the film a deeper rooting in American horror stories and fears.

The film here was written by Ted Griffin for whom this was a first feature. The man does not have any other film credits, no shorts, no music videos, no feature films, listed online before Ravenous. After Ravenous? Well, he’s got some films alright including Best Laid Plans, Ocean’s Eleven, Matchstick Men, and a few other things. The fact that Ravenous was his first film shows an interesting career path for sure. Where things get really interesting with Ravenous is with the director. Originally, the film was going to be directed by Milcho Manchevski a man who started as a music video director, made one feature film in 1994, the acclaimed Before the Rain, then he went dormant for years and reappeared to direct Ravenous. Then he was fired 2 weeks into shooting over disagreements with cast, technicians, changes he wanted to make, and his complaints of micromanagement by one of the Fox 2000 executives. The fact that he was not fully ready to shoot at the start of production may also have played a role. The replacement that almost happened was when Fox opted to bring in Raja Gosnell. Horror fans might not know his name, the man had 2 film credits at the time, Home Alone 3 and Never Been Kissed which wouldn’t exactly bring horror fans confidence that he could direct horror. Thankfully for the audience, the cast mutinied and refused to work with him. Since then, the man has directed Big Momma’s House, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed; Yours, Mine, and Ours; The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2, and a few others. None of this would help horror fans know his work or want him to direct a cannibal period film. So, thanks for rebelling cast!

That’s when lead Robert Carlyle stepped in and called in his friend Antonia Byrd who he had made 2 films with before: Priest in 1994 and Face in 1997. Two solid films, but not necessarily horror. However, she had shown talent, so she was a solid choice, especially with having the cast behind her. She had directed a ton of television shows including EastEnders, TECX, The Men’s Room, and Inspector Morse. She also had a few feature film credits including Priest, Mad Love, and Face. She was not a brand-new director and she had shown a talent for a variety of styles. She was definitely a solid choice here. As for her more recent work, there were some television series and movies, a few features, but sadly she has passed away in 2013.

So, the film had a good script by a newcomer and now a solid director who seemed adaptable. The cast was also a great collection of people. In the leads, we get Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, with David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, and Neal McDonough to name a few. Of course, not all the cast has been drama free, ahem Jeffrey Jones, but all of them gave good performances here. Pearce, Carlyle, and Arquette had some decent name recognition at the time. For horror fans, that was especially true for Arquette as he was now a part of a major franchise with Scream for which the first 2 installments had already been released and quite successful. He had also been in a variety of other films and television series, including the fun 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He had a name, he was known for taking on interesting parts, and this looked like it would be another case of Arquette being great. Robert Carlyle, for his part, had been in a bunch of well-received films like The Full Monty, Trainspotting, and Priest, as well as some popular television series in the UK. His name was known, and brought a lot of zeal to the part. Guy Pearce had been recently seen in L.A. Confidential and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He had a solid resume and was one who was about to blow up with Memento a year later. The man was rising in star power and always giving great performances. From set reports and interview, it has been said that he was vegetarian at the time and to not mess up the realism of the scene where his character eats the stew, Pearce chewed on what was actually lamb stew while on camera and spat it out when cut was called. He could easily have pulled a “star of the film” move and demanded his be vegetarian, but he did what was needed here.

The film had talent in front and behind the camera. There was everything here to make a hit: Talent, an interesting story, a film with a twist, a period piece, and some good blood, especially in that final fight where the production ran out of fake blood while shooting it.

Then there was the music. This movie has music by Damon Albarn. You know, the lead singer of Blur who were huge in late 1990s. Now, people may not know the lead singers name by heart, but Blur was pretty big. The band has had so many hits with like Song 2, Beetlebum, Park Life, and then he went and co-created Gorillaz. Yes, that cartoon band that sings about Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry, the Feel Good Inc folks. His name may not have been huge in the US in 1999, but his work was popular and loved. The other composer on the score was more established for film work, Michael Nyman had done scores for a ton of stuff like Monsieur Hire; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; The Piano, and Six Days, Six Nights. His credits are impressive to say to least. The match of these two doesn’t seem obvious, but it works to bring something new to the table. The score here is interesting and it works for the film and for the year it was released in.It’s very fitting for the time period the film takes place in with custom versions of patriotic songs, period-appropriate instruments such as squeeze box, banjo, jaw harp, and more classic instruments that are still common like violin and guitar. The score also has Methodist hymns and other elements that really add to the sound of the film.

It seemed like the perfect film to become an instant hit, but it wasn’t. At this point, it’s barely a cult hit with far too many people having no clue it even exists.

What happened? It’s hard to make this make sense, the film is good, it has plenty of talent, plenty of blood and multiple uncomfortable scenes to please horror fans. it also has a solid cast and talent on every level. So what went wrong then? Heck, what is still going wrong with it? Well, maybe the release date had something to do with it, maybe the marketing, maybe horror fans didn’t know it was horror, there are so many potential reasons. The numbers say it was a box office failure as mentioned before. A cost of $12 million, bringing in $2 million at the box office is not a good look. The film was released on March 19, 1999, basically in spring break season. So, the teen or college market was busy somewhere else. What else was in theaters that week and where did Ravenous rank? Well, Ravenous ranked at number 18 on its release weekend. If we look at just horror movies in theaters that week, we get 8MM that is horror adjacent at number 15, The Rage: Carrie 2 at number 7, and that’s it on the horror front. That weekend belonged to non-horror films, something fairly normal in March, especially in the 1990s. Other films in the top 20 that weekend included Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful, Shakespeare in Love, Analyze This, and Cruel Intentions. There was a mix of future award winners, comedies, general public friendly movies, so a film with cannibalism which could stand for addiction or the modern obsession with youth per the director’s interviews at the time may not have played well. Other themes of manifest destiny, early American capitalism, colonialism, the Mexican-American War, set in the 1800s, having a Brit and an Aussie in the leads, and being directed by a British woman in a field that was still very much a boys club could also have played parts in having the movie buried. The film had a lot playing against it here. Add to all of this that the critics were not necessarily loving the film, being about split down the middle on this being good or bad to this day, the film was not getting much of a chance. This was not a film meant for the general public and the general public did not show up for it.

Overall, Ravenous as a film has aged decently. It has some solid performances, some really uncomfortable scenes, it makes points that not all are willing to accept and touches on themes and ideas that push some completely away from it. It’s not a film for everyone, so it’s a hard sell at just about any time. Shout! Factory did re-release it on a decent Blu-ray release a while back, something that should help the film find its audience and it deserves so be discovered over 20 years later.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!