Ravenous (1999)

October Challenge Day 30:

Over the last couple of years, with my mother's passing, my cancer diagnosis, and my husband dying - I'm going to say I was under some pressure. 

I recently turned on this film and watched how horrified Guy Peace was at the sight of food and I 100% totally understood. 

Over the last few years my diet went to shit. 

Let's check out Ravenous:

I don't understand stress eating - I can't eat at all when stressed. I physically can't even force myself. The idea of food is putrid. 

This film is a favorite of mine, but it wasn't until recently that I really thought about how great this film is. 

This IS AN AMAZING FILM

And it's about food. Sort of. Which I have, to this day, regular arguments with. We're working on it.

This film blew my mind when my life was normal, but it really blew my mind when I'm cramming little slices of  meat, cheese, and crackers in my mouth because that's all that will fit with my jaw stress locked. 

I was in Reno, NV for work when I was driven to the Donner Party camp site by a co-worker. Seeing  how high the snow was at the time of their harrowing ordeal was - not good. I was horrified. I think a lot about this memory when I think of this film. 

Here we have a story about people making their way West, they get stranded by a snow storm, and a Wendigo comes along... Let's throw in a remote military outpost, a motley cast of characters, an excellent script and plot, and we have a very thrilling adventure on our hands. Bonus, the soundtrack is so perfect! It just perfectly captures the humor and horror of this film.

I've even fallen asleep to this film a few times *just* for the soundtrack - it's soothing, charming, funny, and calmly quirky. 

People often ask what my favorite horror film is and I cannot answer that. I can only state what films are some of my favorite based on a time, place, mood, etc. I can say though that military focused horror stories rise to represent some of my most favorite type of horror story (e.g. Dog Soldiers, Overlord, Dead Snow, Under The Shadow, this film of course, etc...). While this film doesn't always pop out of my mouth right away when asked this question, know that it is in fact one of my very favorites - which is why I chose it to close out this year's October Challenge. 

If you haven't seen it yet then what are you waiting for!? It's brilliant! And I will probably never stop falling asleep to the film just for the soundtrack, lololololo.

Best watched in a small group, pairs with food that horrifies you. Specifically meat. 

I own this film or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this amazing gem of a feature. 

Fear Itself (Television Show, 2008)

I have no idea what today's movie will be because I'm going to a friend's house to watch it - and I've left it entirely up to her to choose tonight's pick. It is a surprise!

But I'll take this moment to update new readers that this month's goal for this blog is to watch a movie I've never seen before, do the best I can to rent that movie from my local Rain City Video store, and then tell you all about it. 

Tonight's movie pairing will be (first) politics, frozen pizza, movie and byob.

More news after I come home from tonight's adventure.

Update:

Well, well, well! What we watched was not a movie at all but a TV show! Another show that Netflix has been screaming at me to watch: Fear Itself. It was one of the host's favorite shows but sadly it was only on for one season. We can not figure out why because it was downright scary!

The first episode we watched was "Skin and Bones" - a Wendigo story! If you don't know what a Wendigo is then Wikipedia has some interesting information for you. I've not yet seen a Wendigo horror movie, but I'm told Ravenous is kind of tied to one.

Wendigos are frightening, and this 45 minute episode did frightening very very well! I give this TV show a thumbs up and I'll be watching more episodes soon! Go out and watch this people - especially if you're super busy and only have time for a 45 minute episode of fun.

I'd also like to add another thing I appreciated about this TV show is how complicated the "good guys" were. I've always felt that a good story, long or short, should portray characters that have fuzzy lines between "good" and "bad". This series, so far, has done that.