Wilderness (2006)
What can be better than a movie about British punks who are sent to an isolated island for punishment and stalked my a maniacal killer? Well, lots of things, but it wasn't horrible.
I found this movie while compiling my slasher film list for my nonfiction book. I'd never heard of it, so I thought I'd give it a try. Thank you Netflix for having obscure movies!
My spouse hated it. He's not convinced it's actually a slasher film, but we could sit down and debate it. It's not a slasher in the "traditional" sense, meaning when you think of a slasher, you usually think of Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare of Elm Street. The type of films with supernatural killers. However, there can be a lot more to them than that.
This film was a slasher. I'm not going to go into an incredibly lengthy list of why, but one of the main components is that the victims are killed by something other than a gun--a weapon that slashes. Most of the victims were killed by dogs in this film. Although not typical, they were a weapon that slashed. Plus, some were killed with knives and arrows.
This was troublesome to my spouse because he isn't afraid of dogs. If it were him on that island, he would have killed those dogs with his bare hands. Shown 'em who was boss. That's fine. He's the alpha male in our house, there's no debating that. However, how many slasher films actually make sense?
Really? You're going to go down into the dark basement all by yourself without a light when you know a killer is on the loose? Please get drunk, smoke weed, and have sex. No one is going to punish you for it. You're completely safe. Those stories about a killer on the loose are just stories. You all know the typical story plots.
There were other elements in the film that made it a slasher, too, but my spouse wasn't convinced. I'm sure he'd still debate it with me even though I'm the "expert." Oh, well. We watch movies for different reasons. He for entertainment, me so I can pick them apart.
Like I said, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't award-winning either (how many slasher films are?). I didn't feel like I wasted my evening, and if you're a fan of the slasher genre, you might want to check it out.
