a shamed captain is posted to a tiny outpost on the edges of the western frontier in the early days of america's colonization, sharing the isolated camp with a collection of other men mismatched for the army. the humdrum life of the outpost is broken one night when a man staggers in from the wilderness almost frozen to death, telling a weird story of a mad company leader who resorts to eating his companions in order to stay alive. with the potencial risk to a woman with the lost company, the small band of soldiers head out to try and save the day, only realising when its too late that the mad cannibal has been with them all along. the shamed captain survives the slaughter and returns to the outpost a wasted man, and those that stayed behind are convinced he has lost his mind when the new outpost chief arrives and turns out to be the cannibal!
a horror film about cannibals set in the wild west certainly deserves praise for its originality, and guy pearce's captain pitted against robert carlyle as the cannibal makes for surprising entertaining viewing in a film that by turns is gruesome and funny. deffinetly worth watching if you can stand watching dying men eat each other.
