Ravenous builds a thrilling horror story based on the Native American folklore about the windigo -- the man who eats flesh.

Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce) was guilty of cowardice during battle but was awarded a medal for bravery. His superior wanted to shoot Boyd, but since that was not allowed, he decided to send him as far from his command as possible. The most distant post was Fort Spencer, California.

Boyd arrived at Fort Spencer and joined the five soldiers stationed there: Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones), who loves to read books in foreign languages; Major Knox (Stephen Spinella), a professional drunk who does the doctoring because he used to be a veterinarian; Private Toffler (Jeremy Davies), a religious nut; Private Reich (Neal McDonough), the hardcore soldier; and Private Cleaves (David Arquette), who is perpetually over-medicated and does the cooking.

There are two Native Americans that "came with the fort," which had been a mission: Martha (Shelia Tousey) and her brother George (Joseph Running Fox).

Shortly after Boyd gets to Fort Spencer, a man arrives and says he has been snowbound in a cave in the mountains for three months. He was with a group of four other people and a military guide, Colonel Ives (Robert Carlyle). They ate the first person that died. Then they started killing. He ran away, leaving behind Ives and the one woman in the group.

George tells the soldiers that the guy has become a windigo. When he eats a man, he gains his strength, but his craving for human flesh grows stronger and stronger. He must kill again and again.

The soldiers go searching for Ives and the woman, but Ives, aka F.W. Colqhoun, kills all the soldiers except Boyd, who leaps off a bluff, falls into a hole and breaks his leg. Ironically, he has to eat a dead soldier to survive.

He eventually manages to get back to the fort. Then things get crazy. I am not going to reveal anything past this point, because I want you to be as shocked as I was.

You have to see this movie! It is a wild combination of comedy, horror, the Wild West, mystery and drama. The soundtrack is the same way. It changes styles several times and sometimes seems too happy and carefree for the scene in the movie; yet, it is a truly magnificent composition throughout.

I watched this movie, rewound it and watched it again. What a strange film! It has a twist and another twist and another twist. Shall I say it has a corkscrew plot?

You really have to admire these writers. They reached into the originality hat and pulled out a masterpiece. I love the way they scrambled in all the genres and produced a movie that actually defies classification. They keep you guessing -- and you are usually wrong. I also like the diversity of characters. This was the Baskin-Robbins of characters.

The acting is fine. All the parts were played with total believability. Spinella does a drunk to perfection. McDonough does a hardcore soldier equally as well. They are all brilliant in their roles and play them at the maximum level.

The photography was excellent, especially the action scenes. The cameras stayed on the action from nice angles and kept the scene properly framed. No nutty stuff here.

Overall, Ravenous is an outstanding movie, though it may gross out some the viewers with weaker stomachs. It is not for the faint of heart. You have to see it to appreciate the quality of this genre collage.