Sometimes I like my horror faire served up nice and rare, with plenty of blood left in it to gush out each time you bite in to it. Wilderness is sort of like that, taking a cast of pretty unlikable characters, throwing them in a desperate situation in an isolated environment, and letting the blood flow wherever it may. Admittedly, it can be hard to win me over with a team of bullies and whiners, but director Michael J. Basset proved himself well up to the challenge. Wilderness won't find itself a spot on my list of favorite horror movies, but it does its whole survival horror thing quite well indeed.

The wilderness of this film's title refers to a rugged, uninhabited island that formerly was used for soldier survival training but now offers itself as an ideal place for troubled young people to get a pungent taste of reality and hopefully learn to work together rather than continue in their juvenile delinquent ways. Our gang of misfits land themselves a week's stay there following the most unfortunate death of one of their own. It turns out that they are far from alone there, however. Meeting up with a small, similar group of juvenile delinquent girls doesn't bother anyone, apart from the two group leaders, but finding themselves hunted by a mad killer (and his ferocious dogs) is generally looked upon as bad news all the way around.

There isn't a lot of suspense built around the killer's identity, as that is revealed pretty early on. The focus is more on the teens' interaction as their numbers dwindle and the psychotic thought processes that landed them all in a Young Offenders Institution to begin with rear their ugly and increasingly violent heads. Can these malcontents somehow work together as a team in order to survive? Uh, no.

There's not an excessive amount of gore by any means, but Wilderness does deliver a few impressive little scenes. Don't expect a lot of character development here, though. The only potentially interesting character is Callum (Toby Kebbell), the new guy, but the air of mystery he brings with him never amounts to anything. Even though he's the only one with enough gumption to stand up to the bully Steve (Steve Wight), he never manages to distinguish himself from the others. As much as I hated the little runt, I have to say that the character of Steve pretty much made the movie for me. The killer ultimately provides little in the way of satisfaction, and not just because we know his identity so early on. Steve makes sure we don't get bored.

Wilderness may not have a lot in the way of originality to offer, but it is a pretty taut thriller that throws us gorehounds a few juicy little bones along the way. Don't expect the psychological undertones of a Lord of the Flies or the good vs. evil dichotomy of The Most Dangerous Game, though. This film is too raw and primal to play any of those psychological games. I found it pretty much impossible to like any of these characters; heck, I didn't even like the dogs, and I'm the biggest animal lover you're likely to find.

It says something for Basset's directorial skills that I liked this film as much as I did -- it can't be easy to make a good movie when none of your characters has any redeeming qualities whatsoever.