1h 40m
Director: Antonia Bird

Set in the American Civil War with an all star cast. You'll certainly recognise the players, even though I'm not sure they'd all gained notoriety at the time they made this.

On the music side it's got a haunting visceral theme which I could still recall 10 years after first seeing it. It's Jaws (1975) basic which is probably why.

The sets and costumes are certainly very serviceable and there were no jarring moments.
I remember thinking this was quite gory when I first saw it but by today's standards it's really quite tame (it's nowhere near Bone Tomahawk (2015) level but I'd still respect the 18 rating!). Some good in-camera effects leave you feeling that things are real enough, nothing broke my immersion anyway.

Guy Pearce puts in his usual reliably consistent performance to play a believable, rather jaded protagonist. As you can imagine, Robert Carlyle does a decent job of rendering a moustache twirling villain.

The writers do a nice discussion of the premise from a moral viewpoint as well as from the point of view of an evil gluttonist.

There's one quite amusing scene where all the characters have hidden motivations which ends abruptly with everyone showing their hand, building some nice tension, without the immediate fatalities that might result in a Tarantino flick.

For most film enthusists, ROBERT CARLYLE PLAYS VILLAIN IN HORROR MOVIE should really be enough to justify a watch!

Overall, better than I remembered - a decent horror with a satisfying conclusion.



Trailer: