Ravenous (French: Les Affamés) is a 2017 French Canadian zombie film written and directed by Robin Aubert. Initially screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017, it had a short run in theaters and at other film festivals before being picked up by Netflix and released outside of Canada on March 2, 2018.
The film follows several groups of survivors in a rural town after the apocalypse: Bonin (and later Tania) who are associated with a makeshift commune, Céline whose journey has her cross paths with a pair of elderly women, and the journey of an old man (Réal) who is stranded without a car or possessions.
Not to be confused with the unrelated 1999 film of the same name.
Ravenous contains the following tropes:
- Adorably Precocious Child/Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Zoé manages to be both. She's 6, maybe 7, so on one hand, she's a girl capable of taking care of herself... while also having a particularly bleak stance toward life and her general chance of making it in a single piece. Not to mention the casual way in which she stabs a zombie and saving Tania.
- Action Survivor: Unlike pretty much everyone else, Tania is firmly under this trope, staying alive by combination of luck, fast legs and others saving her.
- After the End: After a brief opening scene at an auto rally, the rest of the film happens at a much later time. That is, after the zombie outbreak is more widespread. The old women tell the rest of the group that they saw fewer and fewer zombies for weeks after about a month, but also that the zombies have returned in larger numbers — presumably because "they're looking for food," as Céline put it.
- All There in the Manual: The other elderly woman is Pauline. In fact, most characters have their names mentioned once or very late into the story, so good luck knowing their names without the credits.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's slightly unclear whether a blood splatter near the end is from Thérèse we'd been seen being grabbed by zombies a few moments earlier, or Céline who'd been surrounded and fighting them.
- It's also a bit vague if Céline actually did shoot the bitten Rémi, due to never having killed any child zombies earlier.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Réal, right down to attacking Ti-Cul. And in the end, Bonin apparently didn't go through his suicide attempt.
- Anti-Hero: Most of the protagonists are this once the film goes into full swing. They are very distrustful, selfish, and bitter. Notably, Bonin and Tania are not the case, as they form a make-shift family with Zoé.
- The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: The Movie. While characters tend to be distrustful toward complete strangers, they do help each other without much hesitation, offer sanctuary and stick together, no matter what. It's strongly implied this attitude is the only reason why they've even made it this far into the apocalypse.
- Apocalyptic Log: Downplayed. The note left by a fellow survivor is directly addressing the situation and his plans, while also passing vital information in case of someone reach his place while he's away. It's not even made clear if he's really dead.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The zombie that's right next to Zoé and about to attack her loses interest entirely and starts chasing after Tania, who's playing accordion.
- Badass Adorable: Ti-Cul is a quiet young boy, dressed appropriately for his age with an often soft, somewhat innocent expression, who nonetheless carries around a rifle and becomes gradually more adept at using it.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Ti-Cul appearing out of the woods to shoot the zombies chasing Réal right as he was too exhausted to run anymore. Réal is grateful, but also sad, given that all three of those zombies were his family.
- Right when the zombie is about to attack and presumably kill Tania, Bonin shows up, tosses the zombie away and proceeds to bash its head with a hatchet. Should he be a second late, she would be dead.
- Bittersweet Ending: Bonin and Tania become zombies in the end and nearly everyone in their group dies at the same time, but at least Zoé survives.
- Black Comedy: Normally it would be a serious gut-punch, but the way how Demers gets accidently killed is executed in such way, it's hard not to laugh.
- Black Dude Dies First: Vézina is killed early on while investigating some old friends in the forest.
- Blatant Lies: After Demers is shot and dies, Bonin quickly assures Tania that she did well, as he was bitten and thus would turn anyway - making it up on the spot, without even checking. Thérèse realises what's up, but further bolsters the lie, not wanting poor Tania to suffer extra guilt.
- Blown Across the Room: After being shot on reflex by Tania, Demers is send back flying, in the most exaggerated way possible.
- Bowdlerise: The official English subtitles are quite... tactful whenever Tania has one of her Cluster F-Bombs. You might not even realise she's swearing.
- Bunker Woman: Paco is keeping Tania in Bonin's hunting cabin, Bound and Gagged. When asked what the hell he's doing, he points out this is just a quarantine, but this still leaves the question of why did he kept her in the first place.
- Canada Does Not Exist: Zig-Zagged, leading to a very weird final result. On one hand, the film follows all the hallmarks of the trope, with nothing that could easily pin-point it as Canadian ever showing on screen, right down to never even stating where the action is taking place. On the other, it's undeniably recorded in French Canadian and includes distinctively Québécois road sign in the very end.
- Chekhov's Gun: Tania lugs around an accordion with her, though the emotional value is never explained. At the end of the film, she uses it to attract zombies towards her in order to keep them away from Zoé.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The race car driver from the beginning shows up in the final scene to serve as a new protector for Zoé.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Tania has a pretty dirty mouth, especially when she's ranting. She swears a lot after Bonin tries to leave her tied to a bed and she does it again after being attacked by a zombie.
- Color Wash: A dull filter, typical to zombie films, is applied to the film's entire coloring.
- Combat Pragmatist: Everyone who is still alive after the title card. This includes abusing the fact that the zombies don't have to be instantly killed, but can be very easily disabled due to their blind charges and lunges. That and the fact they apparently still feel pain.
- Cool Mask: Paco wears a camouflage ski mask which emphasizes his wilderness survivor shtick.
- Cool Old Lady: Pauline and Thérèse. Two elderly ladies that will talk about dill pickles and home-made jam, but also offer asylum to total strangers, take care of a small girl and make good use of their hunting arsenal. They are by no means a weight rest of the group has to carry, even despite their advanced age.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Demers. It's not clear if he's just a local weirdo, mentally ill or suffered from Sanity Slippage. While Tania assumes he must be unaware of the apocalypse, Bonin is quick to point out Demers is just messing with her for the sake ot if. His crazy antics eventually get him killed.
- Devoured by the Horde: The zombies will pick someone clean if they're in a large enough horde.
- Do Not Go Gentle: At the end, as they are about to be overrun by zombies, Céline stands in the middle of a field, practically daring them to come at her, before slicing them up by the dozens. While she's presumably overrun eventually, that buys rest of the group plentiful time.
- Driven to Suicide:
- After she's forced to kill Pauline, Thérèse ends up with Heroic BSoD. When being chased by a horde in the finale, she just calmly stands there and simply smirks knowingly to Bonin, accepting her fate.
- Bonin himself, after being badly bitten by a horde he defeated, is in a process of eating his gun when Zoé shows up. He stops and ultimately doesn't go through with it, even if sending the girl on a Snipe Hunt to get second chance at suicide.
- Dwindling Party: Doesn't seem to go in that direction, until well into third act. By then, blink and you might miss half of the characters dying.
- Establishing Character Moment: Many of the main characters get one:
- Bonin is first seen making rude jokes with Vézina on the side of the road. When they drive away, the camera reveals they were joking in front of a pile of burning corpses.
- After being attacked by a zombie, Tania freaks out and swears at Bonin and Zoé. This makes it clear that she isn't fit for fighting.
- Céline is introduced by driving to a residential area, opening her car door, and playing loud music to attract zombies. She then brutally kills the only zombie she's lured. After she calms down from the fight, there's a small child silently standing next to her car. Rather than seeing if the child is infected or not, she silently starts her car and abandons the kid.
although this could also be taken as her thinking the child was infected and not having the heart to kill her. - Ti-Cul is seen crying at a farm, then letting the family horse run free before picking up a rifle and backpack, and walking off, past three fresh graves with small stone markers and flowers on them.
- Pauline and Thérèse first forcibly disarm and make sure Céline is not infected, showing them as cautious and pragmatic, but once they are done, they let her stay for as long as she wishes, also displaying thier soft, matrony side.
- Final Girl: Zoé, the little girl
- Given Name Reveal: Ti-Cul eventually tells Céline that his actual name is Rémi.
- Go Through Me: Réal does a variation of this, covering Zoé, but the zombie that spot her simply isn't interested.
- Good Is Not Soft: Pauline and Thérèse are two cheerful, elderly ladies that talk about preserves and are the beacon of hope and help for all the other characters... but when introduced, they strip Céline down to underwear at a gunpoint, just to make sure she's not a Zombie Infectee and are shown being just as ruthless and efficient as everyone else when it comes to dispatching zombies.
- Happily Adopted: Vézina was apparently an adopted son of Thérèse.
- The Hero Dies: Bonin and Tania become zombified in the post-credits scene, while Céline and Thérèse are devoured.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the finale, all characters that are still alive gradually make sacrifices, just so the rest of the group can have a chance at escape. Eventually, there is only Zoé left.
- High-Pressure Blood: After being relatively subdued for the entire run, the film goes into literal showers of blood in the finale, making it outright surreal.
- Hyperlink Story: To the point it looks like bunch of random vigniettes early on and some characters don't meet until third act.
- Improvised Weapon: Réal creates a makeshift spear, made out of a stick, shoelace and his pocket knife.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Réal and Ti-Cul. They could easily be taken for a grandfather and grandson duo.
- It Can Think: While at first appearing to operate solely on raw instincts, the zombies are perfectly capable of building their weird towers, operate as coordinated pack or even set up traps, while pretending to be human. Then there is the fact they aren't easily fooled by simple tricks, as seen when Tania tries to crawl through high undergrowth. Different characters have different familiarity with this occurence, which leads to more than one fatal indicent.
- Jump Scare: Used extensively throughout the film. However, more than half of them come in a very distinctive style: an open shot with nothing going in it, directly cut to something very loud, but also completely harmless. Probably most notable with the sudden cut to the car rally in the opening scene.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Céline wears a skirt suit as she takes on zombies with a machete, with it getting gradually bloodied over the film.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Not only a rare case of positive, but also instant one, too. Bonin releases Tania from captivity and runs away with her from the endangered hunting camp. As a result Tania is in his truck and can dispatch the zombie that Bonin would be unable to get rid off on his own due to being busy driving.
- Laughing Mad: According to Paco, Vézina was this way while killing this zombified family.
- Machete Mayhem: Céline is carrying one around with herself. She's really good with killing with it, while in the same time it takes her a whole lot of swings to decapitate and kill.
- Mood Whiplash: A serious and somber lecture Bonin makes to a tied up and possibly bitten Tania about how she'll likely turn and have to be put down turns out to have been wasted with the reveal that she had earplugs in the whole time.
- Morality Pet: Zoé is this to Bonin. While Bonin uses humor as a coping mechanism, Zoé brings out his light-hearted side as he tries to make her laugh. He doesn't go through own suicide, just so she won't have to see his dead body.
- My Greatest Failure:
- When slowly bleeding out to his death, Vézina remarks if he only knew the world would turn upside-down, he would have cleared his bank account and take his kids to Disneyland, something he even promised to them. At first it sounds like a silly regret, but then you learn he ended up killing his entire family.
- Céline was busy with getting manicure the day her husband and three kids were devoured. She's very bitter about it.
- Nerd Glasses: Invoked toward Bonin by Demers.
- Never Trust a Trailer: It's executed in a way that Céline appears to be leading a charge of a zombie horde. In reality, she's goading them to attack her.
- Not a Zombie: Zig-Zagged. It's so deep into the apocalypse, everyone is long aware how they behave and what to expect. The group is still taken by a complete surprise when they fall prey to a trap sprung by a horde, not expecting to face a zombie with a crying doll. By the time they realise what's up, it's too late.
- Not What It Looks Like:
- Inverted in the opening scene. The girl watching the kissing pair isn't jealous, she's a starving zombie and proceeds to attack when spotted.
- Céline isn't Driven to Suicide in her introduction scene - she's busy hunting.
- Tania isn't a Bunker Woman - she's on quarantine and keeping her Bound and Gagged is the safest way of doing it.
- Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Thérèse instructs Tania how to use a shotgun, explicitly mentioning how to take the safety off and how to make sure it is even chambered, so she won't be caught off-guard.
- Nothing Is Scarier: A great deal of scare comes from this trope, where absolutely nothing is happening, building tension both in- and out of universe. Particularly, in the build-up to the horde attack, Bonin and Pauline are simply observing the edge of the wood, unsure if they even really heard anything.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The group manages to wipe out the horde on their backs, but after few initial shots of their successes, majority of it happens off-screen.
- Oh, Crap!: When one mouse trap snapping turns into few more and then some more, until it's the entire forest "clicking" with them, meaning a horde is running straight into the homestead.
- One Degree of Separation: It's a small, rural area, so some characters not only know each other, but are outright relatives. The only exceptions are Céline and Tania, to the point nobody trust them early on due to their outsider status.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Of the fast variety. They can be relatively easily disabled, but still require Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain to put them out for good. What's far more interesting and unusual is that they are apparently at least partially sapient, including things like setting traps, pretending to be regular humans and even a mocking laugh. On top of that, they display a herd mentality and are generally territorial. If humans get far enough away, they will give up chase (if they've started chasing to begin with) and stand perfectly still, waiting for others to get in range. They also build towers out of random objects, for some unknown reason, and gather around them when they're not doing other things.
- Rule of Three: Demers sneaks on and scares Tania in a childish prank thrice. By the third time, she shots him on reflexes.
- Sad Clown: Bonin is perfectly aware things went to shit, but he sees no point dwelling over it and constantly tries to make various characters laugh. When with Vézina, they both amuse each other with silly jokes.
- Safe Zone Hope Spot: Played With. Céline knows location of an old shelter and the group discuss if it's even worth risking a journey to such location. Circumstances force them to flee their current safehouse and with no other choice they head to the bunker. Which, to not much surprise, is an old, empty and abandoned facility.
- Sanity Slippage: Demers appears to have undergone this, talking about how a (zombified) neighbour tried to bite him and expressing confusion about why she did this.
- Scenery Porn: If you ever wondered, rural Québec is breath-taking.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The trek to the bunker and, by extension, the whole movie: the group finds nothing there, while everyone except Zoé dies, some in really gruesome way.
- Show, Don't Tell: The film doesn't waste more time than it needs on exposition, and jumps directly to action. Various elements aren't in any way explained by anyone, instead their aftermath or characters reaction are displayed.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Tania and Bonin are on opposite ends of the spectrum: while she's very cynical and down-beaten, not to mention overstressed, Bonin tries to remain as cheerful and optimistic as only feasible, if not for himself, then at least for the sake of morale.
- Staking the Loved One: Pretty much everyone had to do this at any point of the story or prior to it. The more prominent examples include:
- Vézina is mentioned as someone who very much loved his wife and kids, but still didn't hesitate to dispose of them.
- Ti-Cul not only shot his zombified father and sister, but then also disposed of his infected mother. The three graves in his introduction scene are theirs.
- Réal ends up killing his own wife, but can't bring himself to face his two sons. Doubly so due to how winded he is by then.
- Starts with Their Funeral: Ti-Cul's vignette opens with him just finished burrying his family.
- Steel Ear Drums: That shot Tania took inside the truck? She and Bonin would most likely end up with permanent hearing damage, at best leaving them with ringing for few days.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The survivors learn the hard way twice their reality is nothing like an action movie.
- When they rest at a cabin, they find a note from another survivor saying that the city they've considered as alternative is infested with zombies. In a real-life situation concerning an uncontained, highly infectious epidemic, this would likely be the case.
- The group travels to a bunker in order to find food and medicine. However, the outbreak started at least a few months ago and this is an old facility. When they arrive to the place, all they find are old furniture and a painting on the wall.
- Tempting Fate: An ambiguous example comes when Paco tells Bonin that their friend Steevy went to investigate smoke coming from a nearby homestead two days ago and hasn't come back. Bonin speculates that he's been bitten, while Paco expresses doubt that he would have let them. A few minutes later, after Paco has gone back into the woods, he's attacked by a zombie wearing camouflage like his, who is possibly (although not explicitly) Steevy.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Vézina going into the forest is risky, but manageable. Him going off-path, so Bonin can't even see him is what gets him killed.
- Bonin's relative Demers keeps scaring Bonin and his party. The third time he does it, Tania freaks out and shoots him in the chest on impulse.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The shot of Vézina, bitten and bleeding profoundly while in the back of the truck, is prominent part of the trailer.
- Underdressed for the Occasion: Inverted, as Céline is spending the apocalypse wearing a bussiness casual suit and a fine pearl necklace. It doesn't prevent her in the slightest from being the most efficient combatant in the group.
- The Un-Favourite: Bonin points out the cruel irony of the fact he's the last person of his family still alive, while they always considered him the black sheep and a no-gooder.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- What happened to the little boy hiding in the tree branches when Vézina went into the forest to inspect? We never see him again.
- Did the author of the Apocalyptic Log die? Or was he simply away when the group visited his place?
- What You Are in the Dark: While distrustful toward her to the point of contempt, when it comes to the push, Bonin takes in Tania, a total stranger that might be a Zombie Infectee, and allows her to tag along.
- Your Head A-Splode: When Tania shoots a zombie, the barrel of the shotgun is directly under its chin. The result is the entire head turned into pink mist, splattering everything and everyone around.
- Zombie Apocalypse: It's been going for at least few weeks and by now, everyone fully adjusted to the situation, developed various tactics and simply tries their best to stay alive.
- Zombie Infectee: It takes few days to turn, making them a very real problem for various characters
- When Céline meets with Pauline and Thérèse for the first time, they force her to strip to her underwear at a gunpoint, just to make sure she wasn't bitten.
- It is never made clear if Tania was indeed bitten by a stray dog, or is she hiding something worse. Regardless of that, not a single character believes her explaination.
- Early on, Réal is shown patching a wound on his leg, but we don't know how he got it. His wife bite him. Réal eventually turns, which results in Ti-Cul's death as he's checking on the elderly man.
