The Ravenous is a 2017 French Canadian horror movie about a group of survivors who are trying to find a safe place away from the hordes of humanity who have turned into mindless cannibals
As tired as I’m sure many of you are with the ‘zombie genre’, this is one where you really can add a lot of social commentary to what our world is doing or possibly what it will look like. It’s actually kind of surprising that there hasn’t been one about an outbreak of sorts right after our most recent presidential election, liberals against conservatives all against this backdrop of a full scale attack of the undead. There is a slight bit commentary about social class in director Robin Aubert‘s film The Ravenous (French: Les Affames), but this one is more of a survival tale, which is fine, I love a good story where ordinary people can overcome obstacles and reach their full potential to survive. However, I was just unaware of who to root for.
For starters, we have Bonin (Marc-Andre Grondin), who has been traveling with his best friend killing zombies and cracking jokes. After his friend is attacked, he makes his way to his home where he discovers a woman that is tied up to his bed and is shown to have been bitten. Tania (Monia Chokri) explains that it was just a dog bite and the two eventually head off together. Later they pick up a young girl and we then join the story of an old man who meets a young boy whose connection is that they both had to kill their families when they turned. Same thing goes for a business woman, whom I think gets a bit more joy from killing than the others. There’s also Therese (Marie-Ginette Guay) and Pauline (Micheline Lanctôt), two older women who I’m pretty sure one of whom is Bonin’s mother in law, and is not all that pleased to see when they meet. Everyone eventually meets up and spend the rest of the film trying to survive, and since yes, this is a zombie feature, not all will make it.
The tone of this is really good and I liked that there is an aura of mystery about the undead in this movie. Why are they putting everything in large piles and just standing around them? They even seem to have maintained their humanity a bit longer than other zombie / viral-infection flicks do. The music from Pierre-Philippe Cote and cinematography by Steve Desrosiers stand out as they each add strong elements to this desolate landscape. The gore and makeup effects were also worth noting as well.
Acting all around is good though I just really didn’t have anyone to really gravitate towards. Aubert does so much switching back and forth between the characters at the start, I didn’t know whose story I was suppose to be following. Was it the old man and the young boy? Or the two old ladies? Or the business woman? I don’t know. It felt in the beginning like I was watching Magnolia, but with zombies. I would love to see an ensemble story like this done with these creatures, but if you’re going to commit to that kind of format, you should stick with it. When the characters were each in their own separate stories, I found them to be a little more engaging and interesting, but when they all got together, I lost interest. Remember the little girl I mentioned at the start of this review? Well she does end up playing a bigger part in the story but there was nothing that helped explain why. It just seemed to happen out of coincidence more than anything.
For a zombie feature, Les Affames is not bad and there were a few moments that I will surely remember. Aubert does best at building suspense in one moment and then having me laugh out loud unexpectedly the next. I just don’t think this one has the presence to be talked about much once you’ve seen it.
The Ravenous (Les Affames) is one of many features showing at the 37th Minneapolis/ St. Paul International Film Festival. Learn more about the festival and the MSP Film Society here.