During the
Mexican–American War,
US Army second lieutenant John Boyd plays dead as his unit is destroyed by Mexican troops. Unaware Boyd is still alive, the Mexican troops send him on a cart of American dead to the Mexican headquarters. En route, blood drips into Boyd's mouth, giving him the strength to capture the headquarters. His heroism earns him a promotion to
captain, but Boyd's superior
General Slauson sends Boyd to Fort Spencer, a remote military outpost in the
Sierra Nevada under the command of
Colonel Hart, as punishment for perceived cowardice. The
traumatized Boyd joins the fort's seven-man garrison. A stranger named Colqhoun arrives after his
wagon train became lost in the mountains by their guide, a colonel named Ives who misrepresented his experience. After eating their horses and pack-animals, the men resorted to
cannibalism to avoid starvation and Colqhoun fled from Ives' particularly voracious appetite. The fort assembles a rescue party to search for survivors, and the fort's
Indian scout, George, warns them of the
Wendigo myth: anyone who
consumes the flesh of a human absorbs their strength but becomes a demon cursed by an insatiable hunger for more human flesh. Finding the cave that had sheltered Colqhoun's party, Boyd and Reich discover human remains and clothing. They discover a Colonel's uniform below one of the skeletons, revealing that it is in fact Colqhoun who murdered and consumed his five companions. Colqhoun now kills the rescue party one by one, leaving Boyd the sole survivor. He breaks his leg when he escapes by jumping off a cliff and hides in a pit next to the body of Reich, eating some of Reich's flesh to survive, as Colqhoun butchers and devours the other members of the rescue party. Boyd limps back to Fort Spencer delirious and plagued by cravings for human flesh. The soldiers who never met Colqhoun do not believe Boyd's wild tale. A second expedition to the cave finds neither bodies nor any trace of Colqhoun. A temporary commander is assigned to the fort and turns out to be Colqhoun, presenting himself as the murdered Colonel Ives. Boyd's fellow soldiers refuse to believe that "Ives" is the killer, especially since he bears no sign of the wounds supposedly inflicted on him during the fight at the cave. That evening, Ives privately tells Boyd that he used to suffer from
tuberculosis. After an Indian scout informed him of the Wendigo myth, he killed and ate the scout, which cured his illness and revitalized him. He now plans to use the fort as a base to cannibalize other passing
travelers headed westward and wants Boyd, who is fighting his cannibalistic cravings, to join him. Boyd is suspected of murder after Private Cleaves mysteriously dies. He is incarcerated and watches helplessly as Major Knox is murdered by the real killer, Colonel Hart, whom everyone believed to be dead. Ives reveals he saved Hart by feeding Hart his own comrades and now Hart too is addicted to human flesh. Frustrated by Boyd's stubbornness, Ives critically wounds him and forces Boyd to make a choice: once again consume human flesh or die. Eventually Boyd gives in and eats a stew made out of human flesh, healing his injuries. Rather than join the two men in their attempt to convert General Slauson, who is shortly due to arrive at the fort, Boyd convinces Hart to free him so he can kill Ives. Hart complies but asks that he be killed as he no longer wants to live as a cannibal. Boyd and Ives wound each other but do not die easily due to their recuperative powers. Finally, in an outhouse, Boyd forces Ives into a bear trap and springs it, pinning them both together. Ives expires first, and Boyd refuses to save himself by eating Ives' body and dies on top of his adversary. Martha, George's sister, finds the bodies of both Ives and Boyd, closes the door, and walks away. Slauson eventually arrives. While his aide looks around the dilapidated fort, Slauson tastes the stew that was left simmering on the fire. == Cast ==