42 - Ravenous

    During the Mexican-American War, a soldier is reassigned to a remote outpost.  There, he deals with a wendigo - a cannibal that gains in strength as it eats others.
    This is one of the rare horror movies that feels so completely classy, but I haven’t run into anyone who feels the same as I do.  The period elements are really wonderful.  The photography and locations are fantastic.  The music is really remarkable.  It captures a sense of the period, but uses a few modern flourishes that give a sense of wooziness to things.
    I don’t think I’ve ever seen another cannibal movie with a similar premise (the exception might be an episode of Fear Itself, called Skin And Bones) and setting the story in a period really makes things interesting.
    The acting is generally good, although the lead is one of the least interesting characters.  The villain is played by Robert Carlyle, who pulls off some wonderfully crazy stuff leading up to his initial attack.  Jeffrey Jones is charming, of course.
    I read up on the production, and watched a little interview with Jeffery Jones that was on the disc, and it sounds like it was a real mess.  One director was fired, another took over, there were budgetary issues, regular rewrites, and the studio included stuff that the director didn’t want used.  It’s remarkable, because I feel like it’s a really solid movie.