Customer Reviews

Wild Country

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love horror movies, but especially Scottish horror (love the accents). This story centers around coming-of-age teens dropped off by the priest in their youth group on a camping trip, only to find out that the beautiful countryside is infested with strange, hairy beasts (and it's not the sheep). I liked the way the movie introduced us to the characters first and helped us care about them before killing anybody off. I was slightly disappointed in the look of the beast, but they did well for their budget. Not a 'top notch' horror, but still entertaining.

Chrissy K. McVay

This movie was a interesting take on the werewolf genre. I myself liked it. The problem was that the whole middle half of the movie is in the dark, and I mean you can't see anything. When the film begins, you see great looking Scottish countrysides with fog, and you think,Wow this has atmosphere...and the the sun goes down. Too bad really, because all the young actors did a good job, aside from thick accents, which sometimes had me scratching my head wondering what they just said. Sometimes I would be staring at a black screen with these fast Scottish sentence flying by,& the F word would be the only thing I could catch! In the bonus features it showed the production of the cool looking castle set, and there's no telling how much that thing cost, and you practically see none of it on screen! If your gonna build a cool set, at least light the thing ! The werewolf itself is definately something new. It stalkes on four legs rather than the typical wolf man type. They said in the bonus materials that it was made to look like a wolf and Hiyena. It reminded me of a possum with stripes across it's face. I mean It did look menacing,and could take a mighty big chomp out of ya, but it just is'nt what we're used to. But I guess if it looked like a (HOWLING) werewolf,everyone would be screaming "Oh they ripped off Howling!"So I give them credit for trying something fresh.I'm glad they used an actual prop, rather than cgi, cause CGI wolves suck!

I am sorely disappointed having seen this film after having read a few decent reviews. I expected it to be a surprise guilty pleasure. Instead,WILD COUNTRY gets high marks for cheese and cheap horror fare, typical of this genre. I'll cut to the chase: The Scottish scenery was impressive enough, the teenage actors were nominal (though their thick accents made me laugh!) but the storyline was weak and didn't make any sense. For example, where did that baby in the castle come from?! And how the hell did it survive? The wolves fed the baby?! The movie provides no clue. And of course, the werewolf-like creature was shockingly fake: it looked more like a Muppet monster or black bear with it's face exposed!!! His facial movements were robotic. It didn't seem threatening at all as it slowly strolled around the hikers throughout their trip, picking them off one by one!! Also, the blundering beast never howled as we know werewolves do but made low pig like snorting and burping sounds!! This movie was realized on a small budget and it showed.
Another glaring weak point: this was a very quiet movie- almost no music where it could have created tension and suspense , unlike the Blair Witch Project which didn't need any music and was genuinely creepy. I was surprised to hear the director so pleased with the results of his film in the special features- talk about settling for mediocrity!! Sorry, folks, but I'll return to classic werewolf movies like AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, WOLFEN, the exciting DOG SOLDIERS and a few others. This one disappoints on many levels and had me howling with laughter and frustration.

If I have said it once , I have said it a thousand times. If a movie is going to be a movie, then it should be at least an hour and twenty-five minutes long. This was a really good movie, but I could not see most of the action done in the dark. There are ways to alleviate this problem. I have seen it in other movies, like green screening the night. The monsters could have been a bit better , instead of looking like an actor covered in a shaggy rug. Other special effects were good, like when the wolves took bits out of their victims. The story was a good one though. I do not regret buying this one, although the accents were too sharp many times. Good for what I paid for it.

A hiking trip through the Scottish back country leads a group of teens right into the hunting grounds of a giant wolf. Together, the teens must gather their courage if they hope to kill the beast before it kills them! WILD COUNTRY takes full advantage of the Scottish locations as it sets a dreary mood in the foggy moors. Unfortunately, the exterior shots become a huge liability when night falls and the film becomes impossibly dark. This does help to conceal the creature for most of the picture, which is for the best considering the cheapness of the costume. The relatively untrained cast manages to get by with acceptable performances, although their thick Scottish accents can be indecipherable at times. It would also have been preferable if director Craig Strachan had left the background behind his monster in the dark as well, rather than explaining away the mystery of the beast in a rushed finale. Still, WILD COUNTRY is a valid attempt at making a creature feature on a budget, and it will hold some appeal for the average werewolf fan.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

After giving up her child for adoption, Kelly-Ann and a group of friends decide to embark on a countryside hike. Along the way, however, Kelly and her friends are surprised to encounter Lee, the father of Kelly's baby. This initial shock leaves the group in a bit of a bundle, but they quickly put aside their hard feelings and continue along their way.

All seems well for the small group.

That is, until night falls.

After a pervert tries to sneak a glimpse of Kelly in the bushes, the group is both frightened and shaken up, thinking the local legend of the 'cannibal family' is true. What they don't know, however, is that things are about to get worse--much, much worse.

I can easily say that WILD COUNTRY is one of the scariest movies I've seen in a long time. Upon initially approaching the film, I was under the assumption that I would be watching some B-horror flick about a group of kids who end up getting attacked by a wolf or wolf-like creature. Though it is definitely B-horror, and though they are eventually attacked by a wolf-creature, the movie does not disappoint in terms of suspense, arguably the best thing about the movie. Filmed with hardly any music, the natural sounds of desperation and the night make this an incredibly-atmospheric film, especially when the action starts to kick up around the twenty-minute mark. Once it get going, it doesn't stop, especially up until the end.

However, despite my enthusiasm over the intense thrill the movie offers, I did have some problems with it.

1 - The thick Scottish accents. To an untrained ear, there are parts in this movie where it is simply impossible to tell what the actors are saying. This improved after plugging a pair of headphones into my laptop, but even then, it still didn't help in some parts. I can lay blame on some of the sound equipment, given the fact that they were probably constrained to an extremely tight budget, but I can't help but wonder if the actors had any dialect training before the film was shot.

2 - The special effects. I can pass this one off due to the budget, but the special affects here were average, at best. The 'monster' is much more menacing at night due to the fact that shadow keeps us from seeing it in any complete detail, but like others have said before me, once the creature is revealed in the light, it seems a bit amateurish and, in some cases, laughable. The death scenes were also below-average at best. I found the most obvious death very hard to believe, but like I said, I can excuse it due to the budget.

3 - My third and worst problem with this movie was the ending. The plot established the movie as a creature feature set in the countryside of Scotland, but did nothing to key into the fact that the film could, in fact, be a werewolf film. This disappointed me, mostly because it feels as though the werewolf aspect was thrown in for good measure at the end of the film. Thinking back on it, I can understand the subtle hint about the baby biting Kelly-Ann's breast, but it still didn't buffer my disappointment when the final, climactic moment of the movie occurred. I so desperately wanted Kelly to have her moment of triumph, to breathe a sigh of relief when the police did arrive and validate her story after the bodies of her friends were discovered. This, however, did not happen, and as such, leaves me sour in the aftermath of this viewing.

Despite my grievances about it, WILD COUNTRY is, in fact, a good film. It's an edge-of-your-seat thriller that leaves you in sheer terror for each and every character right up until the movie ends. Is this film something you would buy at full price? Probably not, but it's definitely something you should check out.

Wild Country is a surprisingly decent little horror film that, sadly, commits cinematic suicide at the very end. You're literally just seconds away from getting up and telling your best mate that the movie wasn't all that bad actually - and then, bam, a great big lump of steaming stupidity falls right in your lap. Sad, really. As far as classifying this movie, I'm not going to jump on the werewolf band wagon; the monster that terrorizes the kids in this movie doesn't look like a wolf to me, and I would say that its proclivity for hunting in the daytime as well as the nighttime disqualifies it as a true werewolf. If that makes it a little harder to explain one aspect of the film that is too plot-sensitive for me to talk about, so be it. So, what is the monster? I've concluded that it can only be one thing: man-bear-pig. It looks like Al Gore was right all along. (This is a South Park reference for anyone wondering what the heck I'm talking about).

Six weeks after giving her newborn baby up for adoption, Kelly Ann (Samantha Shields) decides to go on a hiking/camping trip in the Scottish highlands with a few friends for no apparent reason. The priest (who just happens to be the person who talked Kelly Ann into giving up her baby in the first place) just drops them off in the middle of bloody nowhere, where they are soon joined by the father of Kelly Ann's baby (who hadn't come around at all during her pregnancy). This is not a recipe for a good time. Before long, though, Kelly Ann starts hearing a baby crying in the distance, making you think this is going to be some sort of psychological film centered on Kelly Ann's sense of guilt and regret over her own baby. Then the silly-looking monster shows up, and it turns into your basic survival-type horror film.

One thing is without question - the night scenes in this movie were definitely filmed at night. On the one hand, this sometimes makes it hard to tell what you're seeing (especially when you're busy trying to interpret the actors' heavy Scottish accents); on the other hand, the darkness makes the monster much more menacing. Once you see the monster in the light of day, it's a little harder to take it seriously. Apart from the monster, though, the special effects aren't too bad, although I think the filmmakers tried a little too hard to impress with one of the killings. As the movie makes the turn and heads down the home stretch, it's actually in a pretty good position. Then, out of nowhere, you get the horrible ending. You can sort of predict what might happen in the end, but you certainly don't expect it to play out in such a silly way. I hate to see a decent film shoot itself in the foot, but that is exactly what happens here.

I like the sense of place in this film, but once the monsters actually show up, you can't help but see it's someone in a costume. Very silly, fake looking. This is a renter, not a keeper for your DVD shelf.

The only good thing that came out of this movie was the plot, and a joke my cousin made while watching it. "Werewolf with a flame-thrower". No, there actually isn't one in this movie, but he just randomly said it, and it's awesome.

I normally love a Scottish accent, but I couldn't understand a cotton-pickin' word they were saying half the time. And I agree with one of the other reviewers: you can barely see the action. The werewolf makeup/costumes aren't terribly great. And I can't figure out if I like the end of the movie or not (BTW, it's so broadcasted early on in the movie.) Mostly, when my cousins and I talk about this movie, it's titled as "the movie we never speak of".

Mind, I have high standards for werewolf movies. This DEFINITELY did not meet my standards. I was really looking forward to renting it from my Movie Gallery, and I'd been putting it off and putting it off. Too bad I didn't decide to NEVER rent it.

Capturing the cinematography and scale of Citizen Kane, the sweeping majesty of Ghandi and the trouser filling scariness of Doomsday, Wild Country is a Triumph not only of modern cinematography, but of human achievement. For lovers of fine scriptwriting, there is the line, "I'm gonnie get you Bitch," for SFX enthusiasts, there's the grand entrance of the majestic beast, lolloping in like a stuck warthog and for lovers of excellent production design, there's an entirely square castle set.

As a modernist, abstract piece, Wild Country simply has to be seen to be believed. Cleverly disguising itself as a low budget, Scottish horror, it makes an important statement about the fragility of being and displays undertones of Angela Carter style feminism.

Turn the subtitles on.