Michael J. Bassett returns with his second entry into Brit horror territory and it shows that he has progressed from the critically and commercially well received Deathwatch.
The story sees a group of male young offenders sent to a remote island for some team building after one of their number commits suicide. The lads argue and bicker as usual but seem to be getting along, and when they stumble across a couple of girls they soon perk up. A few hi-jinks and some musical sleeping bags shenanigans ensue before the group learns that they are not alone on the island. They are being watched by a pissed off survivalist with a grudge and his pack of extremely well trained Alsatians.
The film starts off so-so as we meet the characters who are all played by some excellent fresh talents and familiar British faces, including Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers), Alex Reid (The Descent), Toby Kebbell (Dead Man’s Shoes) and Lenora Chrichlow (Sugar Rush).
The characters are pretty well rounded and whilst it’s fun to guess what the boys have previously done to land them a place in the institute, you can’t help but wonder why Lindsay and Davie are even there in the first place, as they are so far removed from the other lads.
Pertwee and Reid play great against each other and the action kicks off pretty quickly too and when it does, it does so in spectacular style, with impalements, decapitations, bear traps, snares, limbs ripped off, guts ripped out, slashed throats and loads more.
OVERALL SUMMARY
In the end the film wastes no time in getting down to the nitty gritty and works all the better for it. This is an excellent British horror movie which holds up equally as well as any other recent entry into the genre. It’s just a shame that its distributors gave it a piss poor theatrical release.
