Wilderness

Wilderness (2006)

directed by :  Michael J. Bassett
starring:  Sean Pertwee, Alex Reid, Stephen Wight, Lenora Chriclow, Adam Deacon, Luke Neal, Toby Kebbell
Genre:  Survial Horror
Format:  DVD (Personal Collection)

     Another great movie starring Sean Pertwee.  This man makes any film for me enjoyable just to see him act.  From this survival horror to Dog Soldiers fighting werewolves to the sci- fi horror Event Horizon Pertwee never fails with a quality performance.  Wilderness is one of my favorite in the sub-genre of survival horror films that not only captures horrorific gory murders but is also very well scripted. The effects themselves are very impressive, pretty brutal, and as a man who despises cgi blood I was more than impressed even with a shot or two of the computerized red stuff.  Of course we do have one of the designers of the Prometheus creatures Waldo Mason credited as a special effects artist and another Ben Phillips who worked on a number of the Harry Potter films so there you go. 
    Pertwee isn't the only notable actor here we also have Lenora Chriclow from the British television show Being Human and Adam Deacon from the British mini-series Dead Set which is right up there with Walking Dead for great zombie television as well as Alex Reid from Neil Marshall's the Descent.  Most of the actors and actresses in the film did a solid job at performing to the affect of the conditions. 

   The movie follows a group of young delinquent young boys stranded on a deserted island along with Jed their officer in charge.  The boys were sent to the island as part of  rehabilitation exercise following the suicide of one of their own.   The correctional institute felt the boys would benefit from having to rely on each other in a survival situation.  But the boys continue to fight and argue amongst themselves leaving Jed constantly in the middle.  Steve (Wight) and his crony Lewis (Neal) are in constant battle with the other boys all throughout the film and most definitely are created as the real villains from the get go.  
     As the film progresses the boys happen upon a group of young women also serving time on the island from the correctional institution unbeknownst to each other.   This creates its own set of problems since some of the boys are in the institution for sex offenses.  Then after exploring the island  a bit more Steve and Lewis discover an old man living in the ruins of an old building.  Later the old man is found dead and the new boy Callum (Kebell) is found with blood all over his hands.  Right away Callum is handcuffed and the situation having reached a chaotic atmosphere gets even further chaotic when Jed's phone goes missing.  After that the murders begin and no one has any clue who the murderer is or why.  After Jed is killed with three arrows to the chest both groups disband and scatter to different areas within the island searching for a way out.  The boys start to figure out what's going on when the killer reveals the name Davie carved into the corpses of some of the victims.  Davie was the name of the boy who took his own life only weeks before.  Davie's father, a special type of super soldier is after everyone of them especially Steve for murdering his son.  One by one the body count continues and continues as Davie's father dispatches his victims with a great bloody display of carnage.  Highly recommended.