Wild Country
Written and directed by Craig Strachan
Starring Samantha Shields, Martin Compston, and Kevin Quinn
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: December 16, 2008

Wild Country, from Lionsgate, starts off like your typical horror film. The story begins with teenager Kelly Ann (Samantha Shields) giving birth to a child. Too young to care for it herself, she is told by her single mother and a priest (Martin Compston) to give up her child to another family. Sadden by this, she decides to go on a hike with a group of friends and her ex in the Scotland forest known as a Wild Country hike. It is on this hike that something goes bump in the night and threatens the lives of all the teenager.

The film, a low budget import from Scotland, overall shows a lot of promise. The script by Craig Strachan, is enjoyable enough. I thought the story, though really predictable toward the end, was satisfying and the young actors are decent but like any low budget horror film, it hits a financial snag.

Because of the lack of funds, certain aspects of the film, like lighting and special effects, suffer — a huge blow to any horror film. The lighting, or lack thereof, was so distracting that I found it hard to figure out what exactly was happening on the screen because the film was mostly set in the dark. I understand that the movie is a horror flick and the director wanted to create a specific mood but making sure that the viewer cannot see any of the action on the screen will not fill the seats.

Along with lack of lighting, lack of special effects were also a big issue with me. The feature monster, a werewolf-like beast, looks ridiculously fake and plastic. I was much more happier with the monster perspective camera shot whenever the beast showed up and actually thought it added an interesting Evil Dead inspired wrinkle to a rather by-the-book type of film. (Strangely enough, they employed that camera trick for the shots at night but opted to show the beast running around in the forest in the morning shots.) Also, there is something wrong with any film that feels long but clocks in at only an hour and 12 minutes.

There is one making of featurette for the DVD but overall, this film is not the best horror film out there. The story is pretty interesting and the actors are decent for first timers, but the low budget lighting and special effects really put a damper on a horror film that was full of potential.