In the middle of Antonia Bird’s lengthy career in television the director had a run of four feature films concluding with RAVENOUS. This tone defying horror comedy takes the wendigo legend and morphs it into an allegory for American military expansionism during the Mexican-American War. Guy Pearce begins his descent into grubby character roles as Cpt. Boyd, a new arrival to a frontier military outpost near the Sierra Nevada mountains. With an assortment of 90’s “that guys” Boyd encounters a wandering stranger (Robery Carlyle) who spins a tale of survival turned to cannibalism. Rounded out with a score by frequent Peter Greenaway collaborator Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, RAVENOUS offers healthy helpings of gore and humor in the midst of characters reckoning with morality and duty. — Andy Helmkamp