Wilderness starts in Moorgate Prison for young offenders where a lad named Dave (John Travers) is found dead one morning in his dorm after having slit his wrist's during the night. The Guvenor (George Shane) isn't happy & is aware that Dave had been bullied & abused by other unmates so in his anger he sends these other inmates on a free holiday to a picturesque isolated island just off the coast for some fun (some punishment!). Prison guard Jed Walker (Sean Pertwee) gets the job of babysitting them but things get out of hand when the mutilated body of a tramp (Colin Nicolson) is found, one of the inmates Callum (Toby Kebbell) is accused but the group quickly discover they are not alone on the island as some unseen psycho killer begins to pick them off one-by-one...
This British production was directed by Michael J. Bassett & I have to say that I was impressed with Wildnerness, I didn't think it was perfect but it's certainly an effective little British horror flick with an edge. Wilderness is a well put together sort of mix of survivalist, horror, action, thriller & teen slasher film all rolled into one & it's very similar to Severance (2006) another British survivalist horror film made the same year but without the comedy elements. Wilderness takes itself very seriously in fact, there's a fairly disturbing opening sequence showing the bullying & subsequent suicide of a young offender in prison (with which his tormentors are given a free holiday for as punishment!) & it's fairly grim going right through until the end with some brutal murders, some really unlikable character's who do some really nasty stuff & a pretty bleak atmosphere. The film has a good pace, there's plenty going on & there's some very memorable moments here but it's not perfect, the fact that all of the character's are so unlikable is a problem because you end up wanting them to die rather than rooting for them & I was disappointed by a fairly lacklustre twist at the end & an all too predictable killer.
The film looks good & there's none of that awful slow-motion, fast-motion, quick cut editing, shaky hand-held camcorder cinematography or any colour bleaching which is great, it's nice to see a film shot pretty much 'as is' rather than have lots of pointless & often annoying post-production techniques inserted. There's some nice gore here too, there's a fair amount of blood splatter, someone is shot with arrows, dogs tear the side of someone's face off & bite his chest & stomach open leaving his insides hanging out, there's a severed head on a spike, there's a slit throat, a guy has his foot sliced off by a bear trap, there's a severed arm, there are stabbings & the violence levels are up to the required standards. There are one or two really great scenes here, the bit when Callum stands looking around by sees nothing then moves away only for the leaves on the ground to move or when the killer slashes someone's throat from behind without them even noticing them there are very effective.
With a supposed budget of about £3,000,000 this was shot in Scotland & Nothern Ireland here in the UK & the locations are nice enough. The acting is pretty solid although some of the accents are a little off putting & feel very forced & at times dubbed. Sean Pertwee is the only cast member of any real note here.
Wilderness is a very good film that will have most gripped, the plot is good & the action & gore is great. Definitely well worth a watch as far as I am concerned.
This British production was directed by Michael J. Bassett & I have to say that I was impressed with Wildnerness, I didn't think it was perfect but it's certainly an effective little British horror flick with an edge. Wilderness is a well put together sort of mix of survivalist, horror, action, thriller & teen slasher film all rolled into one & it's very similar to Severance (2006) another British survivalist horror film made the same year but without the comedy elements. Wilderness takes itself very seriously in fact, there's a fairly disturbing opening sequence showing the bullying & subsequent suicide of a young offender in prison (with which his tormentors are given a free holiday for as punishment!) & it's fairly grim going right through until the end with some brutal murders, some really unlikable character's who do some really nasty stuff & a pretty bleak atmosphere. The film has a good pace, there's plenty going on & there's some very memorable moments here but it's not perfect, the fact that all of the character's are so unlikable is a problem because you end up wanting them to die rather than rooting for them & I was disappointed by a fairly lacklustre twist at the end & an all too predictable killer.
The film looks good & there's none of that awful slow-motion, fast-motion, quick cut editing, shaky hand-held camcorder cinematography or any colour bleaching which is great, it's nice to see a film shot pretty much 'as is' rather than have lots of pointless & often annoying post-production techniques inserted. There's some nice gore here too, there's a fair amount of blood splatter, someone is shot with arrows, dogs tear the side of someone's face off & bite his chest & stomach open leaving his insides hanging out, there's a severed head on a spike, there's a slit throat, a guy has his foot sliced off by a bear trap, there's a severed arm, there are stabbings & the violence levels are up to the required standards. There are one or two really great scenes here, the bit when Callum stands looking around by sees nothing then moves away only for the leaves on the ground to move or when the killer slashes someone's throat from behind without them even noticing them there are very effective.
With a supposed budget of about £3,000,000 this was shot in Scotland & Nothern Ireland here in the UK & the locations are nice enough. The acting is pretty solid although some of the accents are a little off putting & feel very forced & at times dubbed. Sean Pertwee is the only cast member of any real note here.
Wilderness is a very good film that will have most gripped, the plot is good & the action & gore is great. Definitely well worth a watch as far as I am concerned.