Director: M.J. Bassett
Writer: Dario Poloni (Screenplay)
Starring: Sean Pertwee, Alex Reid, Toby Kebbell, Stephen Wight, Luke Neal, Ben McKay, Lenora Chichlow
Plot: Juvenile delinquents are sent to a small British island after a fellow prisoner’s death, where they have to fight for survival.
Tagline – It’s not about revenge. It’s about punishment.
Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Wilderness starts when a group of juvenile prisoners Callum (Kebbell), Steve (Wight), Lewis (Neal), Lindsay (McKay), Blue (Deacon), Jethro (Campbell) find themselves needing to be sent to a remote island for survival training as punishment for letting their roommate commit suicide.
Led by one of the guards Jed (Pertwee), the group find a group of female prisoners led be Louise (Reid), as the group find themselves being hunted down by a ruthless killer.
Thoughts on Wilderness
Characters & Performances – Callum is the newest inmate to the dorm room, he walks in to see how the bullies are treating the weaker members of the dorm, wanting to keep to himself, only learning how bad it truly is when he finds the body. He is the one with the biggest reputation, the only person that truly gets development out of the inmate characters. He leads to attempts to fight back and survive on the island, trying his best to hold the inmates together. Toby Kebbell in one of his early roles is great here, showing us just how good of an actor he was always going to become. Steve is the aggressive member of the group, the bully that the others fear, he has the shortest temper as he will look to cause the most pain to people with his selfish ways. Stephen Wight is great as one of the biggest assholes in any film. Jed and Louise are the two different guards that are trying to teach, while also remaining in control, despite clashing with each. When it comes to the rest of the inmates we get the typical group, with the ones you know will be the first to go.
Story – The story here follows a group of juvenile prisoners who are sent to a remote island for training as a punishment for the lack of care towards one of their dormmates, only for them needing to fight back against a hunter looking to track them down. This is a story that will see how inmates will needing to look at handling themselves in teamwork against a hunter, but they need to put aside their difference which might well have left them in place in the first place. This is pace nice to see how the different people will need to wait for their fate and the hunter is almost toying with them at times, even if some of the side stories around Lewis, Stephen and Jo could be seen as more filler than anything.
Themes – Wilderness is a horror survival thriller that will see a group of people needing to survive on a remote woodland island from a hunter looking to hunt them down. We have traps which will see the island be full of other dangers for the people too, with the wounds being bloody and horrific in nature.
Final Thoughts – Wilderness is a brutal bloody survival horror.
