Wilderness review

Death by dog, crossbow, flames, falling... Wilderness manages to off its characters with variety; problem is, it’s hard to care about any of them. The pitch is strong and simple: Scum meets Deliverance. But this survival horror flick kills off interest early, with its ill-framed action and uncertain pace, showing none of the eerie atmospherics director Michael J Bassett brought to his debut, Deathwatch. Stephen Wight’s bullyboy Nazi is the most memorable of the Borstal boys being hunted on a boat-free island, perhaps because he’s not required to attempt any transformation: he’s a bastard from A to Z. In contrast, the nature of Toby Kebbell’s would-be hero flipflops wildly. There is a bear trap death that lodges in the mind, but the splatter will only satisfy fans needy for capillary-spraying catharsis after a truly awful week. Perhaps if you’re a secondary school teacher, you may enjoy.