The Real Story Behind 10 "Based On A True Story" Horror Films
9. Ravenous
The pitch: This cult 1999 film features Guy Pearce as a US Army captain in the 1840s who, when stationed in a remote fort in the Sierra Nevada, comes across a cannibal colonel (played with scenery chewing aplomb by Robert Carlyle) who seems to have derived some superhuman strength from eating people. The film derived some interest from being billed as based on real stories of survival cannibalism amongst pioneers in remote parts of America. The real story: Penned by Ocean's 11 writer Ted Griffin, Ravenous was a troubled production with Griffin on set for repeated re-writes after original director Milcho Manchevski was fired a few weeks into shooting and replaced with Antonia Bird. His original scrpt was inspired by the story of the Donner Party who turned to cannibalism after being trapped and starving in the snowy Californian mountains. The Donner Party were a group of pioneers travelling in a wagon train from Illinois to settle in California. Through the particularly snowy winter of 1846-1847, the group struggled to make it across the Sierra Nevada. Already low on food from their arduous journey up to this point, they resorted to eating the flesh of those of the party that died from cold and starvation. The newspaper reports that followed naturally made a big deal of the cannibalism aspect of the story, so it can be hard to tell how true many of the details are, but apart from the setting and time period, Ravenous' story and characters are different anyway. More of a case of being loosely inspired by the true story, rather than telling it outright, Ravenous also drew on other real life cannibal stories. Griffin cited 1870s prospector Alferd Packer as a particular inspiration for Carlyle's Colonel Ives. Packer was a Civil War veteran who was part of the group lost prospecting for gold in the Rocky Mountains. Running out of provisions, Packer reputedly ate his companions instead. However, his multiple different accounts of what happened (like Ives' in the film) leave some doubt over the truth.
