If You Go Down To The Woods Today..... (Wilderness (DVD))

Member Name: SRowlands

Product:	Wilderness (DVD)
Date:	17/10/06 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A British "horror" movie with enough gore to satisfy fans of the genre...

Disadvantages: ... yet lacks the tension that horror fans crave

"Wilderness" begins in a male young offenders institution, where conditions are pretty harsh. Offenders are locked in dark, damp cells with up to nine other inmates.
Bullying is ripe in the institution, and tends to be focused towards two of the most timid inmates, until one morning one of these "targets", Davey, is found dead in his bed having slashed his own wrists.

The prison warden demands action be taken, and the inmates are sent to a supposedly uninhabited island off the UK mainland on a survival / teambuilding exercise.

It soon becomes apparant that they are not alone, and one by one the inmates meet gruesome endings...


This new British horror movie is from director Michael J. Bassett, who previously directed the movie "Deathwatch", starring Jamie Bell.

Wilderness is classified as a horror, although I feel it fails to live up to this reputation. At no point during the film is the viewer left feeling scared or on the edge of their seat. Sure, there are some fairly gruesome scenes, but these are no more intense than, say, a british television thriller such as "Wire In The Blood" or "Cracker".
Part of the problem is that you cannot feel any empathy or compassion for the main characters, and therefore you just don't care whether they live or die (although there are a couple you hope will get a particulary nasty demise !).
The other problem is that the director makes no effort to conceal the identity of "The Hunter". Perhaps it is a credit to the audiences intelligence that this is done - I figured out who it was going to be about five minutes into the film (and readers of this review will probably gather who it is going to be within a couple of paragraphs), but the identity is revealed very early on in the film. Once this is revealed, some of the element of mystery (and any element of doubt that you may have had) are gone, so again this reduces some of the fear element.
The film draws much inspiration from other similar movies, such as "Lord Of The Flies" and "Deliverance", but fails to capture the tension that these films deliver.


The isolated island where the movie is set provides some spectacular scenery and backdrops, and the director makes full use of this in the scenes. Dark crevases in cliff faces, heavily wooded forests, rocky beaches and fast flowing streams all feature in scenes in the film.

The cast is virtually made up of unknown actors, with the only exceptions being Lenora Crichlow, who plays "Sugar" in Channel 4's "Sugar Rush", and Sean Pertwee as the Offical required to escort the inmates on this expedition. As in many other British horror movies (28 Days Later / The Descent ), this approach is successful as it leaves the viewer unsure of who will live and who will die.
All of the cast perform their roles well, although no-one steals the limelight.

The DVD has a couple of features, including the standard commentary and an outtake reel - probably worth viewing once, but lack the appeal for repetitive viewing.


Overall, this is a perfectly watchable and enjoyable film. There is enough blood and gore to satisfy fans of the horror genre, yet it's not scary enough to put more timid people off from watching it. The film is obviously shot within a tight budget, yet it achieves what it sets out to do.
The film has been quoted as "The best British horror since '28 Days Later'", but they have obviously totally overlooked "The Descent" which was, in my opinion, far scarier and a much better film.

Summary: A decent British horror / thriller