ravenous

Brotherhood of the Wolf - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
$14.98
Well paced horror film that keeps viewer in suspense. Some formula aspects to the film, but still very enjoyable to watch. Photography is excellent and the acting is, for the most part, outstanding.

Ravenous (Leisure Fiction)
$7.99
For some who would come across Ravenous, they would read the story and think it was just a exceptionally written, yet classic werewolf tale with a new twist on the myth. But there is so much more going on in this book. In an amazing way, the twist of turning lycanthropy paves the way for metaphors of the human condition in today's society that would feel didactic in a regular werewolf tale.

They all come out in the excellent characterizations and character developments in the book as each of member of the cast face the implications of the supernatural STD. We have the Sheriff of the town under attack in the middle of the meeting on prepping his officers to combat the werewolves, slides of into contemplations of his wife possibly being one. The internal struggle of being able to believe both sides and wondering if the heart or the mind is right in a world of rationalism and skepticism. The cheating husband who still loves his wife, but no longer finds your sexually satisfying and looks elsewhere and grasps for control while his love and his lust clash with his heart in the middle. Even the most sympathetic character, Jason, is tragic in that he is the embodiment of the geek that never can quiet get his life the way he wants it and is more lost in the real world than in the boyish dreams and fantasies into, which, he escapes. It is a life that really is one that tends to become more and more common these days they ever before since it was normal for children to leave the nest and develop lives outside of their parents.

It also comes out in the portrayal of the werewolves. Over the course of the book, various characters become infected. First, this is something I wish I saw more of in horror fiction: letting the reader into the mind of the monster. So many just develop a monster, both strong ones and weak one, and just use them as the killer of the story. But in developing those monsters, the writer has had to understand the mind of the monster and that is an experience i think readers, too, should experience. For me it made these werewolves more terrifying. Why? Because while they were monstrous beings with sex drives and hunger for flesh on a horrific level, they still were all too human in their reasoning. In a way there represent how easy it is to loose ones self once a person becomes a part of a like minded group where they share such overpowering ideas, outlooks, and beliefs. Instead of satisfying our animalistic desires, we satisfy our desires for power, self-worth, and greed. There is a joke that goes, "Life is a sexually transmitted disease with a 100% mortality rate." Ravenous proves this point all too well, replacing life with lycanthropy.

Garton's Live Girls is considered an essential addition to the vampire canon. At the very least, Ravenous should be highly considered for addition into the werewolf canon.

Ravenous: The Dark Forgotten
$6.99
Strangely, I think what got me to like this book and give it a decent rating was the rat incident where the main character asks her partner to help her out. At the same time, I think that shows how the rest of the book sort of passed me by in a bit of a blur, altho an enjoyable blur. All in all, I would recommend it to a friend as pretty good. Not a keeper to read over and over, tho.

Ravenous
$9.98
This is a fascinating movie with numerous plot twists and surprises. When the tale of cannibalism is first revealed in the story, a background flute-melody is played. This stands out for me because it made it so darn creepy somehow...
It is hard to write much about this movie without ruining it for those who plan to watch it, but suffice it to say it is one heck of an interesting flick with a lot of shocking surprises and a very creepy undertone to it all. The characters that survive devolve into ghoulish loons, making a cauldron of human stew towards the end of the movie.
The interweaving themes of cannibalism and insanity illustrated an exaggerated yet valid point I was trying to make on my 'herbivore central' blog so I included it in my last entry there.
I can't stress enough what a weird yet cool movie this is. Recommend to all.