Review of Wilderness

Wilderness (I) (2006)
7/10
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8 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
A group of bang-up young lads, whose hobbies are drug-dealing, rape, murder, psychological torture, Nazism and juvenile delinquency, go on a backpacking trip to a remote ex-army island together with their happy-go-lucky special-cases caretaker, Jed (naturally played by Sean Pertwee, the Brits sole horror star). Supposedly alone on the island they fortunately stumble upon a couple of equally nice girls, who are all too open to share the island (and their very doubtful virginity). Even more luckily it turns out that apart from them the island has it's own drunk, who loves getting beat up, as well as a murderous special ops with four blood-crazed dogs. This means the boys are in for the funnest game of their lifetime: kill or be killed.

A bit of "Lord of the Flies" with a survival thriller twist to it "Wilderness" is a surprisingly gripping experience. Much owed to the absolutely excellent cast with special kudos given out to Luke Neal and Toby Kebbell, as well as the director Michael J. Bassett, who has proved to be a remarkably capable actor's director. Both "Wilderness" and his debut "Deathwatch" (both survival horror movies) show immense talent to exerting the best out of his cast. Without a single note wrong throughout the movie you can forgive it's script inadequacies as well as some occasional sub-par cinematography.

The bones and flesh popping out here and there throughout the movie are found lacking and seem to plastic, but nonetheless the gore should satisfy the most disgusting needs. The biggest fault does however seem to lie with the ending itself - the overwhelming feeling I had was that the scriptwriter had no idea how to roll the credits and went for the obvious, if lame and abrupt outro.

Also what is it with black guys and horrors? I've had an intense horror-filled week behind me and in every single movie they are always the first to die! Really people - stop it already!
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