Ravenous

Ravenous is a 1999 black comedy horror western film directed by Antonia Bird and written by Ted Griffin. Set in the 1840s, the film stars Guy Pearce as John Boyd, a US Army captain who is exiled to a remote military outpost in the Sierra Nevadas, where he and his colleagues encounter a sadistic cannibal, played by Robert Carlyle. The film also stars Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, and John Spencer in his final film role. Griffin's screenplay combines elements from the Donner Party and that of Alfred Packer, the real-life "Colorado Cannibal" who survived by eating five companions after becoming snowbound in the San Juan Mountains in the 1870s. An international co-production between United Kingdom, United States and Mexico, Ravenous had a troubled production history. Issues over budget and shooting schedules were still ongoing when filming was about to start in Slovakia. After the original director Milcho Manchevski was fired three weeks into production, he was replaced by Bird at the suggestion of Carlyle. The score was composed by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, who used period-accurate instruments and utilized several minimal music techniques. Released by 20th Century Fox in the spring of 1999, Ravenous was a box-office bomb, grossing $2 million against a $12 million budget. However, despite initial reception being mixed when released, it has since garnered a reputation as a cult film.