British Director Michael J Bassett’s previous foray into horror was with DEATHWATCH, a disappointing contribution to a mini-sub genre of UK supernatural chillers set in wartime. His follow-up, the more confident and satisfying WILDERNESS, is a rare British entry in the American-dominated cycle of DELIVERANCE-inspired survivalist horror. In the UK, it received a limited theatrical release within months of Christopher Smith’s fabulous, better known SEVERANCE, which plays a similar premise for both suspense and character-based humor.
At a special unit for youth offenders overseen by Hard Bastard Sean Pertwee, a much-bullied inmate commits suicide. As punishment and, in a bid to “build character”, the small group of young criminals (a murderer, an armed robber, a sex offender) are taken to a remote island used by the prison system to rehabilitate some of its worst offenders. They are not alone : not only are there a couple of female youth convicts and their leader, but also a mysterious, camouflaged killer, who commands a pack of wild dogs, and is intent on picking them off. The adults die early, leaving the teenagers in a grim variant on the LORD OF THE FLIES scenario.
Bassett is less concerned with sustaining the mystery of the central threat (it’s clear fairly early on who the vengeful killer is) than he is with sustaining an unpredictable intensity about who will be next to perish horribly. There are flickers of coal black humor – “You never hear of chow mein? That’s dog, that is” – but the accent is on suspense and visceral death sequences. Employing aerial shots to isolate the doomed characters, the director makes superb use of the eerily remote location, cleverly staging key scenes in the woods, the ocean and on cliff-tops.
As for gore, WILDERNESS ranks as one of the nastiest movies to ever squeak by with a UK ‘15’ rating. Pertwee suffers a gruesome demise to rival his own splattery death in DOG SOLDIERS, while the convincing make up effects stretch to brutal throat slashings, fatal animal-trap injuries and a climactic knife-axe fight. The most disturbing moment is a queasy visual homage to the unforgettably creepy head-on-a-stick moment in the overlooked Canadian movie RITUALS (1976).
Bassett has a strong sense of visual style typified by the cool moment in which a low angle shot of a freshly killed character is gradually obscured by a seeping pool of blood. He also gets naturalistic performances from an unfamiliar cast of young actors : most of them convince as young offenders and their edgy temperament, prone to turning on one another at any moment, brings an additional tension to the proceedings. A conventional ending doesn’t hurt the impact of this strong movie.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
