I hear the questions forming in your mind, dear reader: What does THE REVENANT, the just-released movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio, have to do with werewolves? And, even if I am attempting to make a tangential connection to the supernatural, shouldn’t I be posting this on our sister site, vampires.com? After all, a “revenant” is a being returned from the dead, right, an alternate term sometimes used for a vampire? Yes, it is. And there’s nothing supernatural about the film. But I did find some themes in it relative to lycanthropy.
What we see in the picture is a human being reduced to his most base status, deprived of weapons, shelter, and outside aid, badly wounded after a mauling by a Grizzly bear, at the mercy of the frigid elements. To survive the character, Hugh Glass, has to become almost bestial. He wolfs down raw meat, scavenges from the carcasses of dead animals, climbs inside a gutted horse for warmth. It is a story of survival at its most primal. Only Glass’s desire for revenge keeps him alive. It’s about a man, cast out from civilization, forced to return to his animalistic roots. See the connection now?
Oh, yeah, I’m supposed to review the movie, aren’t I? Okay. It’s really, really good. Go see it.
