Wilderness (2006)

This film was on my radar for more than a decade. Saw this recently. It is a bloody n brutal take on the revenge n survival saga. Young offenders r sent to an isolated island for disciplinary method. The locations r picturesque but the plot has many flaws. Ignore the flaws n u get a bloody good time. There are ferocious dogs n the maulings r frighteningly gory. Ther is also a very innovative immolation scene, few stabbings n axe chopping the shoulder scene. Now I came to kno that Adam Green got the body slicing axe scene in Hatchet 1 from this film. Some may crib that the killer's identity is revealed very early. Inspite of the director being new n the budget not that great, the film is a solid thriller n the best part is the entire film is shot in broad daylight n ther r no pov or shaky cam stuff. I enjoyed this film after 13 years of its release, imagine the impact the film wud have done 13 yrs back. I have liked M.J. Bassett's Deathwatch but found his Silent Hill 2 n Solomon Kane dull.

Obviously films like Deliverance, Southern Comfort, Rituals aka Creeper, Just Before Dawn, The Most Dangerous Game, etc. may come to mind.

Fmovies: I'm rather surprised at some of the negative comments posted here about the film. I just got back from Montreal where the film just had it stellar North American premiere at the always incredible Fantasia festival, one that packs in the very best from around the globe, and Wilderness does not disappoint. I totally bought into this film. Its chock full of jumps, great kills, and really awesome amounts of gore. This is a total horror and genre geek must see! Its an amped up, highly charged popcorn movie with a damn great young cast. If Lions Gate or someone does not pick this up, they are bloody insane!! This is film gets me really charged up for the next Michael J. Bassett offering.

Wilderness isn't a great modern horror film, but it does a good job of taking old ideas and rehashing them into a fresh and exciting plot line. The influences to the film are clear, with the much-copied classic 'The Most Dangerous Game' being fused with more modern films such as 'Battle Royale'. The basic plot line isn't too far removed from your common slasher film, but director Michael J. Bassett gives him film an extra edge by putting the focus on the struggle as the protagonists battle with the wilderness (naturally), the main threat and even each other. The plot focuses on a group of juvenile delinquents who are sent to an uninhabited island when a young lad staying in their home is found to have committed suicide. However, the island doesn't turn out to be uninhabited at all, as aside from a local hermit; there's also a group of girls there with the same idea - and some mad psycho with a crossbow and a group of bloodthirsty German Shepherds, who is seemingly hell bent on not letting any of them off the island alive!

The director seems more bothered about atmosphere and tension than characters; as while some of the people inhabiting the film are well defined, their actions are often questionable and none of them are particularly interesting. But even so, this isn't a problem; as the film is constantly suspenseful and the fact that there is an unseen psycho in the woods bodes well with the atmosphere on display. Michael J. Bassett seems keen to go against the clichés of the horror genre, as there is no mystery to the killer's identity after the first half of the film and the crossbow weapon works well. There's a fair amount of gore on display, although the film never matches the initial death sequence in the wilderness in terms of gore. The acting isn't terrible, but the 'thick' British accents sound really phoney to an actual Brit like me. Sean Pertwee is the only recognised name on the cast list, but the rest of the cast; which is made up of mostly British television stars, provide adequate performances. Overall, Wilderness is certainly a good horror film and comes recommended.

Wilderness fmovies. I had a bad feeling about this movie during the first minutes, even though I had read the plot before. It seemed like a gloomy drama about the life of a bunch of young prisoners, that would end up having almost no room for horror whatsoever. I feared that "Wilderness" would turn out to be one of those films that frantically try to give a lesson about life or something like that. Appealing as that may sound, it didn't look much like a horror movie to me at first and I was very close to leave it unfinished during the first minutes. Fortunately, I was patient enough to realize that I had a pleasant surprise ahead of me, when all of a sudden, the locations changed and the circumstances became far more dangerous than they are inside a prison. So for those of you who think this is probably a movie with a profound message and a big amount of drama, sorry to disappoint you, but this is more than anything a flick meant to be enjoyed by gore lovers.

In "Wilderness", a bunch of violent prisoners are sent to an isolated island, after one of the interns commit suicide. It appears that the young cell-mate, whose name was David, felt forced to take his own life, due to the constant, aggressive harassment that he used to suffer from his fellow inmates. The idea for the educational little trip, is to build some self-respect and learn a few things about the values of life, with the object of achieving a better relationship with the others. However, these nasty young rascals won't hesitate to show their true colors as soon as they disembark and they even have the pleasure of coming across a bunch of pretty female convicts from a different group. The whole point of the trip gets quickly forgotten, but a new lesson regarding survival is what the inmates are forced to learn, when the figure of a mysterious hunter appears out of nowhere and starts to chase them for no evident reason.

Essentially, "Wilderness" is a movie that is probably not meant to be taken very seriously. It is on the whole an entertaining gore fest with some of the most enjoyable and brutal scenes that can be compared to "Battle Royale", "Wrong Turn", "Friday the 13th" and "Il Camping del Terrore" by Ruggero Deodato (although many people would probably disagree with that). Nevertheless, in the end, it manages to achieve its own dazzling and yet simple denouement, where the mysterious surroundings is revealed in a very simplistic and crude way. The filming location is pretty much one of the highest points of the film. The idea of a killer running wild in an isolated island full of enormous trees and bushes, pretty much creates this unsettling atmosphere of being actually locked up, and the characters somehow appear in real danger for the first time. This is rather ironic, considering that the film takes place in jail during the first minutes. With nothing else to add, I highly recommend this film to anyone who is in the mood for amputation, narrows, bear-traps, fire and wild dogs on the loose.

A bunch of teenage delinquents are taken to a remote British island in order to 'build character', but are picked off by an unseen assailant in a variety of gruesome ways.

Wilderness, a violent British made survivalist horror, is another clunker from director Michael J. Bassett, the man who gave us the decidedly lame WW1 chiller Deathwatch. Once again, Bassett presents us with another poorly thought out movie saddled with a ridiculous conceit, a poor cast (when Sean Pertwee is the best actor on the bill, something is definitely up), and a very bad script.

Even if a large picturesque island paradise off the coast of the UK actually existed, the idea that it could possibly remain totally uninhabited is unbelievably daft. The thought that it would be reserved solely for the use of correctional facilities is absurd. And the notion that a group of violent offenders would be taken to said island accompanied by a single supervisor is totally moronic.

And with the majority of the movie's characters being juvenile scumbags and unlikable thugs, it is impossible to feel any sympathy for most of those who die. In fact, I was quite happy to see these miserable excuses for human beings get their comeuppance.

In an attempt to distract his audience from all of these shortcomings, Bassett piles on the gore, with maulings by savage dogs, crossbow attacks, dismemberment and immolation. But even a high level of impressively realistic bloodletting doesn't stop one from noticing that the film is basically a bit of a stinker.

I enjoyed this movie for the most part, but thought the writing/dialog was a little weak at points. I honestly think one of the cheesiest moments in movie history was in this particular movie when the guy offered up a hunk of fresh cooked dog meat to his girl.. and she hugged him gleefully...

But anyways, the idea of the movie was pretty cool and I enjoyed the beginning and how they ended up on the island. In the tradition of No Escape and Battle Royale, this is a great addition to the 'island survival' genre but is by no means a stand out.

Definitely give it a watch if the synopsis interests you!