an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Hot on the heels of the horror comedy SEVERANCE comes WILDERNESS, a similarly-themed low-budget British movie about a bunch of people on a remote Scottish island who are being picked off one by one by a camouflaged maniac. Bearing many similarities to DOG SOLDIERS in terms of dialogue, gore effects, and the always-welcome presence of Sean Pertwee, despite its predictability and lack of originality, WILDERNESS rocks! An engaging script, plenty of action, and some creepy isolated locales make this flick a winner, and it's also a genuinely exciting film with people fighting for their lives against an unknown oppressor.The movie benefits from the usual clichés that arise when people are stranded somewhere remote; it's all about group dynamics, and watching the characters fall apart or become leaders is always engaging. The acting from the young cast is surprisingly decent, with lots of stand out performances with Toby Kebbell's mad hero taking the honours. And, of course, with this being a modern horror film, it's very gory stuff despite a 15 certificate. Legs and heads are severed, there's a pack of vicious dogs that tear people to shreds (Sean Pertwee never has much luck, does he?) and things culminate with a nasty knife vs. axe fight which makes for really vicious viewing. Lean, pared down, and offering all the splattering you could ever want from an intense horror outing, WILDERNESS does just what it says on the tin – and for that it deserves top marks.

The plot: After a youth offender is driven to suicide from bullying, his bunkmates are forced to go on a team-building exercise on an isolated island. However, they soon discover that they're not alone.Wilderness is a pretty obvious mash-up of themes borrowed from various sources: the island location, lack of adult supervision, and sadistic bullying of Lord of the Flies; the man vs man conflict of The Most Dangerous Game, as well as its hunter antagonist and island location; the revenge setup of Friday the 13th and countless other slashers; the survival horror of Deliverance; and "Broken Britain" thrillers about despicable, violent youths. There are also hints of other slasher and survival horror films, but, unlike some reviewers, I think Dog Soldiers and Battle Royale are kind of stretching it. So, obviously, the themes are not unique, and they have been dealt with in other media extensively. What makes this film worth watching? For me, it wasn't the plot, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.I'm not a big fan of teenage slashers. I got my fill back in the 1980s, and Scream did nothing to reinvigorate the genre for me. However, I liked the director's previous film, Deathwatch, and I'll never turn down an opportunity to watch Sean Pertwee in a low budget horror film. The cast ended up surprising me, because I thought some of them did a good job. The characterization was at times a bit minimalist, but it was put the good use. Steve, the main antagonist among the teens, was thoroughly despicable and the sort of character that you love to hate. He was played to perfection as a violent coward, and it's difficult to imagine how this film would have been memorable in any way without him. Unlike Deathwatch, the pacing is fairly brisk, and the writing is straightforward. The gore is, at times, comically gratuitous, but it avoids devolving into the torture porn that sometimes accompanies post-Saw survival horror (such as Rest Stop). Still, there are a few good SFX scenes that might stick with you for a day or two.Overall, it's a fairly enjoyable example of teenage survival horror, but it doesn't really pretend to be anything more than that. There are some interesting ideas about revenge vs justice, punishment vs rehabilitation, and the culpability of authority figures in teenage bullying, but none of them are given nearly as much attention as the melodramatic teenage drama. The gore might be too infrequent to satisfy true gorehounds, yet excessive enough to alienate some squeamish viewers. If none of this scares you off, I suggest you give this film a chance. It's not great, but it's enjoyable enough.

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!

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.