Ravenous

During a brutal battle, Boyd plays dead as his unit is wiped out and is believed dead. The Mexican troops unknowingly ship him on a cart of American corpses to their headquarters. Blood drips into his mouth along the way, a strange surge of strength that helps him survive. His actions at the headquarters earn him a promotion to captain.

General Slauson sends Boyd to Fort Spencer as punishment for perceived cowardice after the ambush. The remote outpost sits high in the Sierra Nevada and is commanded by Colonel Hart. Boyd arrives to a tense, suspicious garrison that expects obedience rather than heroism.

A stranger named Colqhoun arrives at the fort after his wagon train is lost in the mountains under questionable guidance. Their guide, Ives, has misrepresented his experience to the group. They resort to cannibalism, eating horses and pack animals to survive, and Colqhoun swiftly flees from Ives’ growing appetite.

The fort forms a rescue party to search for the missing wagon train survivors. Their Indian scout, George, warns them of the Wendigo myth: anyone who consumes human flesh gains strength but becomes a demon driven by hunger.

They locate the cave that sheltered Colqhoun’s party and uncover human remains and clothing. The investigators realize that Colqhoun is actually Ives, who has murdered and eaten his five companions.

Colqhoun, now revealed as Ives, murders the rescue party one by one. Boyd escapes by jumping off a cliff, breaking his leg, and later hides in a pit beside Reich’s body, consuming some of Reich’s flesh to survive.

Boyd staggers back to Fort Spencer in a delirious state, plagued by cannibal cravings. The soldiers who never met Colqhoun dismiss his tale as madness and doubt his sanity.

A second expedition to the cave finds no bodies or any trace of Colqhoun. A temporary commander arrives at the fort—and it’s Colqhoun, disguising himself as 'Colonel Ives'.

Ives privately confides to Boyd that he once suffered from tuberculosis. After learning about the Wendigo myth, he killed and ate a scout to cure himself and has been cannibalizing travelers since. He tries to recruit Boyd to join him.

Boyd is suspected of murder after a private dies in mysterious circumstances. Major Knox is murdered by the real killer, Colonel Hart, whom everyone believed to be dead.

Ives wounds Boyd and pushes him toward a brutal choice: eat human flesh or die. Desperate, Boyd yields and eats a stew made from human flesh, which heals his injuries and sustains him.

Boyd persuades Hart to release him so he can kill Ives, hoping to end the cannibal plot. Hart agrees but asks to be killed afterward; Boyd and Ives clash as they confront each other.

In an outhouse confrontation, Boyd lures Ives into a bear trap and springs it, pinning them together. Ives dies first, and Boyd refuses to save himself by cannibalizing Ives's body, dying on top of his foe.

Martha, George’s sister, finds the bodies and closes the fort’s door. General Slauson arrives, and his aide tastes the stew simmering on the fort’s fire, hinting at the fort's grim secrets.