Ravenous (Les Affames)

I arrived to the zombie party a bit late. It all started for me with a video game called “7 Days to Die.” From there I finally gave “The Walking Dead” a try and binged 5 seasons in no time at all. There were revisits to classics such as “Night of the Living Dead” and “28 Days Later,” Playstation’s hit “The Last of Us” and multiple other games. And comic books, too. So many zombies.

And that, unfortunately, may be what hurts Netflix’s new French zombie film “Ravenous (Les Affames).” We’ve seen it all before. But to the film’s credit they try their best to shake up the formula and they succeed. These new zombies are much like those found in the “28” series--they run and they screech. However, they also have some semblance of memory that is directed towards physical objects. They will tear a loved one’s stomach open but will build towers of tribute to consumer culture. And that’s perhaps the most terrifying aspect of “Ravenous.” It’s not when a swarm of the undead, guttural wails piercing the silence, come crashing through a forest after a survivor that horrifies the viewer. It’s when these things stand motionless, starring at their mounds of recognizable objects from a past life, that generates chills up and down the spine.

“Ravenous” may be the “Dunkirk” of zombie movies. “Dunkirk” wasn’t a film that was as focused on characters as it was setting and atmosphere. We never really know that much about those characters beyond what we need to know in the moment. The actual location and event is the true star of “Dunkirk.” Everything else are mechanical parts that move the action.

“Ravenous” works very much the same way. We never know the characters all that well and they feel secondary to the mood. Whatever has interrupted this world happened long before the movie begins. We see the detritus spread across the streets. But most of the action takes place on the outskirts, in deep forests and old farmhouses. And the characters have established their place in this new world. There’s the lone woman who lures the creatures to her car with loud music and then takes them down with a machete, the hunters who drive country roads looking for survivors and killing the creatures as they encounter them, the elderly women who hole up on a farm. We’ve seen all these characters before and it’s not hard to fill in the blanks based on past archetypes. But perhaps a focus on one or two robust characters would have benefited the film.

“Ravenous” is all about looks and tone and it does a wonderful job in those departments. Cinematographer Steeve Desrosiers is the star of the show. The world is cast in earthen tones of brown and gray and dull sky blue that match the surroundings our survivors trek through. Fog infiltrates shots in a hypnotizing fashion until it grows so thick you can no longer see. A night seen is especially deadly when sight is all but eliminated. Perhaps the most jarring moment in the film comes when the group stare into a woods that has been filled with mouse traps, the snapping of triggered traps alerting them to approaching danger. One trap snaps, then after a pause a second, building to a chorus of clanks as a horde of zombies approach.

It’s too bad that “Ravenous” comes at a time when the zombie craze seems to be wearing thin. It adds just enough new to the mixture to make it feel a bit different from all the rest. There is definitely something here for zombie fans to enjoy. Hopefully they still have the urge to give it a try. And if you want to get the most out of the film maybe it’s best left on a watchlist until Halloween rolls around.

"Ravenous" is currently streaming on Netflix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3abQ2oRBzo&w=585