- In this unpredictable and shocking coming-of-age story, three high-school girls on a weekend getaway impulsively take a menacing trespasser captive when he shows up at their remote mountain cabin. Fueled by desperation, alcohol and a childhood story about a mountain murder, Ruth, Deb and Kate endure a long, terrifying night with their captive before it all erupts in a dramatic and deadly end. Shot
Description
In this unpredictable and shocking coming-of-age story, three high-school girls on a weekend getaway impulsively take a menacing trespasser captive when he shows up at their remote mountain cabin. Fueled by desperation, alcohol and a childhood story about a mountain murder, Ruth, Deb and Kate endure a long, terrifying night with their captive before it all erupts in a dramatic and deadly end. Shot on location in the spectacular Colorado Rocky Mountains, Wilderness Survival … More >>
November 8th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Quite frankly, I’d pay to watch him read the phone book. But it turned out to be a very interesting little independent film. Shot by a husband and wife team and made on a literal shoestring, it takes the conventions of teenage slasher films and the angst of teenage coming-of-age films and combines the two for a fairly satisfying bit of storytelling. I even watched it a second time with the director commentary on, and that was almost as good as the movie, itself. It’s essentially a primer for making a low-budget independent film. Plus, all the actors (there are only four) are very good. James and Jeanette Brox, the girl who plays Ruth, are better than very good. Their one-on-one scenes are just riveting.
SPOILER AHEAD!
The reason that I only gave the movie 4 stars is that I occasionally found the girls to be so incredibly stupid that it really grated on me. I understand that teenage girls aren’t usually rocket scientists, and I realize that these three girls were also stoned/drunk, which is never conducive to making good choices, but Kate and Deb’s decision to leave Ruth alone with the man, not once, but twice, made me want to throw something at the screen. There’s stupid, and then there’s terminally stupid. On the other hand, that decision gives the audience more of the twisted emotional pas de deux between the man and Ruth, and it is a dance that is well worth watching.
Rating: 4 / 5
November 8th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
… and the parts are pretty good on their own. But the collection of relative unknowns (writers, directors, actors, composers, best boys) fits together perfectly in this film. A teen slasher film turned on its head, Wilderness Survival for Girls has a concise and refreshing premise — three teenage girls encounter a strange man in a cabin in the woods and, out of fear, take HIM hostage. It owes a bit to Roman Polanski’s Death And The Maiden (1994), but with a decidedly younger and more universal feel. The filmmakers find the perfect tone to set, and the actors more than meet it – all four performances are nuanced and compelling.
Wilderness Survival For Girls is not a showy, sprawling epic; it is a clean, tight flick that knows what marks it wants to hit and nails them exactly.
Rating: 5 / 5