This movie has a stellar cast with Guy Pearce (Captain John Boyd), Robert Carlye (Colqhoun), David Arquette (Pvt Cleaves), Jeffrey Jones (Col. Hart), John Spencer (General Slauson), Neal McDonough (Pvt. Reich), and maybe some other people that I may recognize. So yay for that.
Mexican American War 1847
Cap John Boyd gets a medal of honor or recognition and looks disturbed watching everybody at this dinner eating this meat, so he goes and pukes. Gen Slauson wants Boyd away from his company of men, so he is sending him to California.
We see during the war, he pretended to be dead to survive. He meets with Col Hart, and he is a big reading fan. He also likes nuts and cracking them with books, and he has 2 sets of glasses. So they kind of just keep this place ( I think he said Fort Spencer) and they are a way station for travelers to Nevada. For the winter with a bare-bones crew. They have: Pvt Toffler who is their religious dude, Major Knox who is the drunk, Pvt Reich who is their badass soldier, Martha who doesn’t talk much, George who is Martha’s brother and a local and likes to smoke out of the pipe with Pvt Cleaves and get silly. Boyd is #3 in command. At the dinner table, George and Cleaves are all giggles.
We see a flashback of how Boyd got behind enemy lines by playing dead, so the enemy carried him buried him with the other dead soldiers. He had another guy’s blood running down his throat. He was buried pretty low on this stack of bodies. He gets out from under the pile, sneaks up on one guy and breaks his neck, steals his gun and keeps the other guy quiet. He just kinda took over it sounds.
Martha and Cleaves are getting sent for food and supplies. Good call in sending those two. Hart and Boyd take some of Knox’s booze while Knox is passed out. Boyd sees somebody outside. They go looking and find this guy passed out. He was pretty much passed out from the cold. He had some frostbite, and they gave him a hot bath and put Toffler on watch basically over this dude. The guy awoke the next day. The guy wonders where he is. This is Colqhoun, and he says that he hasn’t eaten food for the past 3 months. Storytime.
He says that there were 6 of them, including Col Ives. The winter stopped their progress. SO they end up in a cave to try to wait out the storm. They ate the oxen, horses, and his dog. Then they ate belts and boots. Jones dies first, from being malnourished. When Colqhoun returned from getting wood, the people in the cave were cooking his legs for dinner. He thanked the Lord for the smell of meat. Then things got out of hand. He ate sparingly, and others didn’t. People got more hungry after a week. Col Ives couldn’t satisfied. Janus and MacCready get killed first. After that, it was MacCready’s wife. So it’s down to him and Ives. Colqhoun said that he acted cowardly, so he flew instead of protecting Mrs. MacCready. He isn’t sure if MacCready’s wife is alive or not. Hart says that they have to go looking for her just in case.
George warns of a monster that eats people and steals their spirit, and the appetite becomes insatiable. The more he eats, the more he wants and the stronger he becomes. Hart leaves Knox in charge. So it’s going to be Hart, Boyd, George, Toffler, Reich, and Colqhoun on this search mission. This will end well.I feel like this is Predator like with this grouping, and that’s a good thing, but they need a black guy. You ALWAYS need a black guy.
Boyd asks Colqhoun if after he ate people, if he changed or noticed any change. Toffler just tumbled down a terribly rocky little fall worse than Gary Sinise in The Stand. He is hurt. Toffler demands some bourbon. At night, Toffler says that Colqhoun was licking his bloody bandages. Reich is a hoss. Colqhoun says it was part of a dream and asks that they restrain him as he can’t be trusted. Reich is a dick to him and George says “Wendigo”. They approach the cave, they can see it, and Colqhoun is very scared and reluctant. Reich is just yanking him around every which way. Colqhoun is practically begging. George has a bow and arrow ready. Hart is sending in Reich and Boyd, and Reich is like, stay the hell outta my way son. Reich is easily my favorite followed by Hart and George.
The guys go down in the cave. They find a trail of blood. They find a hole just big enough to lower themselves down into, so down goes Reich. Colqhoun is freaking out Toffler. Hart is calling for the guys to come out, but Reich finds skeletons picked clean down there. Reich counts many are down there and says it’s a trap, and Colqhoun killed everyone, including Ives as e sees Ives’ uniform. Colqhoun has hidden a knife. He gets it, stabs Hart in the belly, then uses him as a shield from George. He shoots George. Toffler is too scared to do shit. Colqhoun goes to shoot Toffler, but no more bullets. Colqhoun tells Toffler to run and he gives chase. Boyd and Reich go chasing after Colqhoun. The music is crazy but in a cool way. They hear Toffler screaming. They find Colqjoun and they give chase, and the music starts up and goes away, then starts again. They find Toffler who’s belly has been cut into. The guys are loaded and ready to kill this asshole. Reich misses his shot. They are up on some ledges. Boyd wants to go back, but Reich ain’t having it. Colqhoun gets the drop on Reich, throws his knife in his chest, and Reich rolled off the ledge. Boyd shoots Colqhoun in the chest, and he’s down, but now he is up and looking crazed. This is intense.
Colqhoun presses forward and Boyd backs closer and closer to the edge, so he jumps off a crazy distance, gets some branches on the way down, tumbles forever, and ends up with Reich. Starts choking Boyd, but he seems dead now. Colqhoun, you just lost some good meals. Boyd’s leg is like fractured, bone is sticking out. He is fucked. Colqhoun is close by, like right above him now, but Boyd is under some trees and brush. Colqhoun is using his nose to try to find them that way. Boyd bites down on a stick and tries to set his leg properly. That looked horrifyingly painful. Colqhoun drags the dead into the cave. Martha and Cleaves are back.
Days go by. Boyd is freezing so he takes Reich’s clothes for warmth. Boyd asks Reich what to do, or is praying. He is getting so hungry. He tried to hold out, but he couldn’t. SO he cuts into Reich. We now see that Boyd can stand. He can walk. He has a limp, but nothing too bad. It is snowing out. Not good. He walks back to the fort. He sees Cleaves. They get him inside and Knox works on healing him. Boyd is freaking out at night, bad dreams? He asks Martha about how to stop the Wendigo. She says Wendigo never gives, he just takes. He tells him that Wendigo must die.
General Slauson is questioning Boyd about all of these people missing. Slauson is trying to give Boyd an opportunity to change his story, but Boyd ain’t biting. To replace Col Hart, they have brought in Col Ives, who looks just like Colqhoun. Boyd freaks out. Boyd explains this and says that Knox can back him up, but Knox is a drunk and mentions a beard. Well, Ives doesn’t have a beard like Colqhoun did. Boyd said that he shot Colqhoun so they check Ives for any wound. Both shoulders are healthy. Boyd is spooked. Boyd takes a knife from the kitchen from Cleaves. There is talk that Boyd won’t eat meat, and nobody is buying his story.
Boyd stabs Cleaves and eats him, but it’s all in his mind. Creepy. Hahaha, Knox is playing chess with Cleaves, and every time Cleaves looks away, Knox cheats. And then suddenly, Boyd goes to attack Ives with the knife, but he is stopped. Boyd waits outside and follows Ives. Ives tells Boyd that he found what was left of Reich, and don’t blame him for not finishing as he was tough. Ives used to have tuberculosis. He was depressed, really ill, headaches. He was on his way to a sanitorium to probably die. An Indian scout told him an interesting story about if a man eats another man’s flesh, he gets the man’s strength and spirit. He at the scout, and after eating the 5 men, tuberculosis vanished, and he was stronger and more virile. He is confused about why Boyd is so resistant. Boyd says it’s a matter of morality. Boyd swipes with his knife, and he asks Boyd if he can smell the blood and all the other memories. Boyd gets him from behind with a knife to his throat, but Martha intervenes and puts a knife to Boyd’s throat. Knox comes out and puts Boyd under arrest.
Knox wants Martha to find Cleaves, put Boyd under arrest while Knox heals up Ives. She can’t find him though. She goes into the barn, all the horses have been killed. She runs to tell Knox. Blood starts dripping on her head. They see that Cleaves is dead on the roof. Knox punches Boyd for Cleaves, and then for his horse. Knox needs Martha to travel by foot to talk to General Slauson to get Boyd to a military prison. Ives locks the doors to the fort.
Ives appears to be getting a stew prepared. Boyd is calling for Knox, but he is tanked, and ignoring him. Boyd just wanted to make sure that he was alive. Knox tells Ives that his sword is missing. Boyd asks Ives when he killed Cleaves and the horses, and Knox is practically irate at Boyd. Well, Ives has the sword. Knox closes Boyd’s door. Ives just killed Knox. Boyd is calling for Knox. Then somebody opens the door and it is …..Hart??? He apologizes to Boyd, and Ives mentions the curative powers. Hart tells Boyd that his leg doesn’t have to hurt, and deduces that it was Hart who killed Cleaves and the horses. Boyd asks him what happened. Basically, he was dying, he woke up to Ives feeding him. Boyd asks if he is there to eat him, and Hart is like, nah, it’s hard having friends when you’re a cannibal, so we want to bring you into the fold, but we gotta make you stronger by having you eat.
Ives talks about come spring, gold-hungry Americans will pass right through there. They want to kill indiscriminately, you know, not breaking up families. Boyd won’t give in, so Ives stabs him in the belly, says that it’s not fatal if he eats some stew. Basically, he can either die via the wound, or heal by joining them. Boyd chooses to eat and Ives and Hart seem happy with this decision.
The general is on his way, and Boyd looks pretty healthy, but they still have him chained up. He wants some fresh air, but Hart isn’t sure if he can be trusted. Wouldn’t it make sense for Boyd to just eat these guys and be like super powerful? “You have to kill to live” says Hart trying to get it through Boyd’s thick head. Boyd wants to kill the General, and he is on his way. Hart asks Boyd to kill him. He leaves a knife on the table for Boyd. Boyd kills him as Ives comes closing in on the building. Boyd now has Knox’s sword I believe and it’s time for him to take on Ives, but he failed so far and now Ives is hiding. Ives is like in Boyd’s head.
Ives has a red cross painted on his forehead. Ives jumps through a ceiling, but Boyd gets him with a pitchfork. Ives gets him with Hart’s knife. Boyd with a butcher knife to Ives’ forearm, then a bludgeoning by a log. They wrestle on the ground. Ives jabs the knife in Boyd’s side and then back. The ceiling collapses on Ives, and Boyd walks away with the knife in his back. Ives is still alive though. Ives gives chase, and Boyd just sits and waits for him. Ives pulls the knife out of Boy’s back. There’s this stare down. Boy gets him to fall on a big ass bear trap and then springs it. It pins both of them together. Ives says that if Boyd dies first, he will eat him, but will Boyd do the same? Martha and General are finally in and looking around.
General sniffs the soup. General tries it out, thinks it is yummy. Ives appears to be dead and Boyd is still conscious. Martha sees them in the trap. She just closes the door and walks away.
End film
Damn, that was pretty damn interesting, to say the least. This had a ton of great actors having fun. You can tell that these guys had a lot of fun making this, at least I assume that. Guy Pearce never lets me down and deserves better roles in Hollywood. Jeffrey Jones is one of the most underrated “those guys” and Robert Carlyle is very underrated as well. This was a good cannibalism film, so I have no complaints. The music worked for me, but I can see how it would be a turn off to others. The last 15 minutes is where it dragged a bit too long for me. I actually would have preferred that in the end, Boyd and Ives worked together and have the bad guys win I guess. That’s just me though.
Final rating: 6.0 This was good, and I have seen it 3 times. I enjoy it, and it is worth at least one viewing. It plays out the way that you would expect it to.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Please go find a copy and support the creators.