Uncivilized People on an Uncivilized Island
Following a death at a juvenile detention center due to some bullying young offenders the governor decides to send them under the supervision of Jed (Sean Pertwee) to an uninhabited island to do some team building exercises. But they are not the only one's there as former soldier Louise (Alex Reid) is there with a bunch of female delinquents for pretty much the same reason. But whilst trying to keep the two groups apart Louise and Zed find they have to join forces when a man with attack dogs and a cross bow starts picking them off one by one.
Well I guess after reviewing over 8,000 movies it takes some thing special to impress me, "Wilderness" was not it. It seems that maybe I am in the minority though as scouting around there are glowing reviews of this movie about uncivilized young offenders in an uncivilized environment many of which seemed impressed by this pseudo gritty survival movie with a British tang to it as people bitch at each other and call each other "slags" and "you plank". Trouble is I have seen it all before not once but many times and having Sean Pertwee calling the young offenders "slags" only reminds me of "Dog Soldiers".
Now maybe I am being a bit harsh as "Wilderness" is a surprisingly decently put together horror movie with some graphic violence when it comes to the way people end up being killed. That is in essence where "Wilderness" works because the whole battle for survival side of things is pretty typical as is the way the story plays out. But then when you see attack dogs with their noses deep inside the chest cavity of a person ripping out their insides it is some thing you won't forget in a hurry.
What this all boils down to is that "Wilderness" is a movie of two sides; there is the cliche side with the battle of survival from the crazed hunter which did little to excite me. But then there is the graphic nature of "Wilderness" and that is where the movie works and so if you enjoy watching vicious death scenes then this will be right up your street.
