Ravenous [Blu-Ray]
Director: Antonia Bird
Cast: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, David Arquette
Release Date: Now Available for the first time on Blu-Ray
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 8.5/10
Disc Rating: 9/10
Plot Summary:
Captain John Boyd’s promotion stations him at a fort where a rescued man tells a disturbing tale of cannibalism.
‘Ravenous’ tells the story of a group of individuals in the late 1800’s located at an isolated military outpost who end up coming into contact with a terror far beyond anything they could have ever imagined. When a man shows up claiming tales of insanity and cannibalism, they group is thrown into a world of insanity that soon becomes a fight for their survival as well as their sanity.
I found myself incredibly impressed with ‘Ravenous’ and it’s wonderful to see it finally arrive home in high definition on Blu-Ray, thanks yet again to the wonderful folks over at Shout/Scream Factory. Fans of ‘Ravenous’ will definitely want to pick up a copy of Scream Factory’s Blu-Ray to add to their collection, not only in order to finally be able to own it on Blu-Ray, but also for the great collection of bonus content included on the release (more specific information on the special features can be found in the technical specifications analysis below.)
The film is directed by Antonia Bird who does an impeccable job of keeping the pace and drastic changes in mood transitioning flawlessly and managing to consistently leave the viewer enthralled. One of the most notable aspects of ‘Ravenous’ would without question have to be the score which is absolutely marvelous and was conducted by Michael Nyman. The score perfectly adapts and contributes to the mood of the movie with its consistent changes of creepy tones to silly chase music and everything in between.
The cast of ‘Ravenous’ is compiled of an incredibly talented group of individuals, many of which I’m sure a lot of you will be familiar with. The entire cast does an impressive job in each of their respective roles, although I must say that Robert Carlyle is exceptionally fantastic and could not be more creepy and perfect. The cast includes the likes of Guy Pearce, Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, Neal McDonough and a number of other talented individuals I’m sure many are sure to recognize.
VIDEO:
Scream Factory’s Blu-Ray release of ‘Ravenous’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.35:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation on this one looks pretty solid. Although a number of artifacts and glitches can be found at brief moments within, I’m assuming this is a result of the film source and not of bad mastering considering the impressive job Scream Factory consistently does with their transfers. This high definition video presentation is certainly far better than any previous home video release of ‘Ravenous’ has ever looked and I believe fans of the film will be pretty satisfied overall.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. There are moments in the film where the audio feels a tad hollow, yet in the majority of the runtime this lossless multichannel soundtrack holds up well and is pretty solid. There is a fair amount of activity throughout all five of the channels throughout and the film’s absolutely amazing score sounds truly fantastic here. While it may not be perfect (once again very possibly an unavoidable problem originating with the source) it sounds pretty great overall and should have most pretty pleased.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Ravenous’ comes with the usual impressive collection of bonus content we’ve come to know and love from Shout’s Scream Factory releases. Included on the release are 3 separate audio commentaries, an in-depth 20 minute interview with actor Jeffrey Jones that gives an impressive amount of insight into the back story and production of the film, Still Galleries for both Costume Design and Production Design, as well as both the theatrical trailer and tv spots for the film. Certainly more than enough extra goodies to keep fans of the film entertained for a good long while after their viewing of the film on Blu-Ray.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.