Los hambrientos

This one went straight under my radar and I simply hadn't heard of it, had it not been for a recommendation I may not have come across it at all.

A multi award winning French Canadian effort this could be compared to the 28 Days Later (2002) franchise. In that our antagonists are not zombies but arguably just feral people.

I was struck by the creators choice to have the movie filmed in French. Canadian movies rarely are and it seems like a baffling choice, surely they know that English would have made it more accesible and how many people do not like subtitles.

Thankfully I'm not one of them so despite this weird choice I gave it a go and was left rather undecided.

Without a doubt The Ravenous is a pretty film, the cinematography is fantastic as is the score that goes with it. It tells your usual story of a group of survivors doing everything they can to stay alive during this outbreak and the characters are interesting enough.

Sadly it comes across really rather dull. I didn't expect nor want wall to wall action, that's not the issue. The issue is it just comes across quite lifeless, almost like creators knew how to make a visually impressive film but didn't know how to tell a story.

The Ravenous isn't bad, it's just underwhelming and despite it's multiple award wins I think it's still a title that will only appeal to a certain type of moviegoer.

With its junior Walter White lead and unexplained confusing plot points this failed to impress.

The Good:

Beautifully shot

Well scored

The Bad:

Frustratingly dark in places

Leaves a tad too much to the imagination

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Musical instruments should be a no.1 priority during the apocalypse

In a genre infected by too many bad to ueber-bad productions, Les affamés aka Ravenous is a solid entry - the execution is good enough, we get even a little gore here and there. No doubt, Les affamés aka Ravenous is no masterclass but a little snack-in-between for the lover of the zombie-apocalypse with infected crazies in that fast running way a la 28 Weeks Later.

The negative reviewers missed the nuanced point of this film. I am a huge dystopian post apocalyptic movie and zombie fan...and have seen most of them - even all the foreign ones. This one is refreshingly different, and I enjoyed it immensely, despite its flaws. It's not a film about surviving (such as The Walking Dead), but of just barely existing, and the tricks to the mind it plays.

The entire movie is filmed as if the viewer is in a mental dissociative dream state. Which you would be in a world such as this one. Far too many movies show unrealistic people who are always on their guard, never making mistakes, always able to survive with near super hero powers. Here we see real humans, who make inexplicable mistakes. However, this is a dissociative dream state world, we don't need the details, nor does what we see need to make any sense. There are no deep human relationships in this world...they have been destroyed. The allegory to our materialistic society is deeply amusing - as the afflicted show. There are also many realistic terrifying moments...usually quite fleeting (which makes them even more terrifying).

The musical score and photography are absolutely exquisite. The long creepy pauses, fog, deep forest, strange guttural screams, strange edits all add to a feeling of disassociation. The viewer becomes part of this surreal world. The suspense is found in the absolute quiet minimalism, the tiniest of sounds.

Too many negative reviewers whose movie goer experiences demand factual linear storytelling or action will not like this film. My take is it's an artful film I will watch several times again. Must see the reason for this dystopian world. It's alluded to after all the credits play. If you don't see it, you will never know why this world happened.

The strength of this French language zombie film is that is relies on tension rather than action to produce thrills. Set on the Canadian countryside, a group of survivors are hunted by hungry zombies, creatures whose behavior at times eerily echoes of their previous consciousness. The story's rather small scale, the lack of a universal scope to this zombie apocalypse, gives it an intimate feel. And the silence of the rural setting, occasionally broken by zombies screaming, is as haunting as it is strangely moving.

I feel this movie could fade away into the myriad of zombie images if I were not to write a passage down about it. It plays out something like an episode of The Walking Dead season IV where they're on the road again. It's altogether quite serious, and yet it has some slapstick dark comedy thrown in at unexpected moments. In its quiet, subtle way, it leaves some of the most haunting, ghostly imagery imprinted on the mind, something like of a recurring dream. As in The Cured (2017), it hints at maybe a sort of pack mentality or unconscious motive shared by the zombie horde. Is there a celestial theme also suggested by the strange furniture shrines erected? Maybe the best aspect of this movie are the unanswered questions, allowing us to vicariously live the anxiety of the protagonists.