Wilderness (1996) User Reviews

Surprised, very surprised.

[Captain_Couth · 8/10 · 30 September 2003]

Wilderness (1996) I took a chance and bought this movie. I struck out with the Strangers and Huntress. But I enjoyed it (edited from a British mini-series) very much. The movie was sad and heart breaking, but Amanda Ooms is hot. She reminded me of Winona Ryder (with a few pounds added to her frame). Ms. Ooms was truly believable as the tormented librarian that lived a double life as a creature of the moon. After I watched this movie I wished I could see it in it's entirety. I enjoyed it that much. A good time waster. I wish they made more movies like this one. It had all of the things I like in a Horror/Drama flick. Sleazy overtones, decent acting, attractive ladies and cheesy effects.

Recommended..

An (almost) goreless werewolf story

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 15 July 2008]

Alice White isn't like other women as each month on the night of the full moon she turns into a wolf. Due to this complication in her life she avoids getting into relationships preferring to pick up men at a local hotel and have a one night stand to satisfy her sexual needs. This changes when one day as she leaves her job at the library she witnesses a man hit a dog in his car... together they take it to the vet and gradually grow closer.

The other main character in this is Alice's psychiatrist, Luther Adams, to whom she tells about the wolf. In a series of flash backs we learn how it first starting appearing when she was a thirteen year old child living in the countryside who would sneak off into the nearby woods at night to become the wolf. She also tells how she became the wolf and killed a farm worker who attempted to rape her; when she told the police at the time nobody believed her and she was certified until she retracted her claim. Initially Luther doesn't believe that Alice literally becomes a wolf in fact even when he sees her partially change he believes he must have imagined it. As the story progresses he thinks that she will be an interesting case study for a book and later, as he is drawn to her, he decides he would be justified in sleeping with her.

The acting in this is good especially Amanda Ooms as Alice and the always excellent Michael Kitchen as her psychiatrist, the story is also pretty good; much less gory than one might expect from a drama about a werewolf. There is however quite a lot of nudity but that didn't seem gratuitous to me. The only real complaint about this production is the effect used as she changes from a person to a wolf, rather than using make up to achieve the effect they just morphed her from one to the other in a second or two, if they didn't have the budget to do the effect well it would have been better if she'd transformed off screen.

This review is based on the full broadcast edition of the programme, not the much shortened DVD, I'm rather surprised that it was possible to shorten as much as they did as little in the full version seems superfluous.

I liked this one.

[IByte ! · 7/10 · 17 June 2000]

I'm kind of surprised to see this is the first comment, but here it is...

I haven't seen all of this movie, because (as you can see here in IMDb) it's a TV movie, and I put the channel on when it was already halfway or so, though I would have liked to see the rest of it. This movie is correctly categorized as drama, but I found certain aspects actually quite amusing. (possibly a minor spoiler, but I think it isn't) E.g., can you imagine the look on the psychiatrist's face when he sees his patient who thinks she's a werewolf (and she is, but he doesn't know/believe) actually turn in to a wolf? Now who needs a shrink? The story-lines with the psychiatrist, her boyfriend and the wolf expert all work quite nicely together. My vote is 8 out of 10.

Could a woman descend from she-wolf ?

[Strannik · 5 January 2002]

When I was watching this movie I didn't know that it had been made for TV. So I'm very pleased with the quality and the plot of the movie.

It's the story of a lonely woman who feels outstanding and wants to find peace. The problem is that she's werewolf. Since the beginning of the picture she's tossing between his inner dissatisfaction, her love to the man and a psychiatrist who tries to help her.

Well, the authors of the 'Wilderness' tried to add psychological validity(Freud doctrine) to the plot but they rather failed over here than succeeded. The character of doctor Luther Adams is weakly depicted and he seems to be erotomaniac interested in his work only rather than enlightened scientist.

What really takes my breath away - it's Amanda Ooms. She plays so deeply and ardently that you can't help believing she's exactly a werewolf.

My vote is 6.

Not the usual mainstream-werewolf (***possible spoilers***)

[t-meyerhoefer · 6/10 · 26 August 2006]

A rather quiet film that shows the werewolf-subject from a psychological and sociological perspective instead of flooding the screen with blood and getting teenagers exited with special effects and action. It is very interesting to see what problems the young woman has with her relationships and her feelings, e.g. her inferiority-complex of being an outcast inside human society. She even has the responsibility to lock herself up in her own cellar when she feels her animal instincts rising again. I was relieved to see that she obviously had the aggressions of the beast within her under more control in the end. So there may be a process of maturing even in werewolves ;-).

The psychiatrist is meant to be funny but is rather ridiculous in the end. The special effects are reduced to the transformation into the beast and are rather ludicrous. It seems they used a simple morphing tool like Kay's Power Goo or something similar. Judging from what is possible in that area it looks rather cheap. Here they could have done better even by using old-fashioned means like make-up etc.

Apart from these flaws the film has a good and interesting story to tell and does its job well. The acting is good and the feelings shown a believable. This authenticity is held up even in details (like when she tries to convince her new boyfriend of her true nature by applying self-hypnosis and doesn't succeed because somebody's close to her and watching).

P.S.: I saw the movie-version and not the total length of 174 minutes.

Excellent Plot & Cast.

[helenachilds21 · 10/10 · 26 January 2013]

Brilliant its just a shame we are unable to buy it on DVD for use in the UK. Why we don't know. Its a fantastic mini series with great effects. Definitely recommend it. If anyone knows how I can get a copy of this on DVD please let me know as I have been searching for this for years to no avail. The cast is first class as well as the story line. It gives an in depth view of the inner struggle a young woman has to face. Should she go on in life just accepting that she is different or throw caution to the wind and allow the wolf to take over completely. Her emotional journey is so life like and believable you can't help but watch right to the end. We hope one day to own a copy of this.

Not bad, but ...

[Teknofobe70 · 5/10 · 6 April 2005]

"Wilderness" was originally aired as a UK mini-series and ran for a total of 174 minutes. Unfortunately, the version I saw was a movie edited together from the series which runs for only 100 minutes or so, which means there was over an hour of material missing -- so bear in mind that this is a review of the edited movie rather than the series.

It's immediately apparent from watching Wilderness that it's based on a novel, and fact is you probably already know the story. There's a whole bunch of books of the same type -- a woman has been living as a werewolf since she hit puberty, which causes problems in her relationships so she goes to see a psychiatrist and there's this guy that she really likes but she's scared he won't understand and he has this ex-wife who's a complete bitch and ... yeah, it sounds like popular British fiction alright, and if you're familiar with it you can predict all of the twists and turns here a while before they actually happen.

The directing feels like your average UK TV series, and so does the acting. Everyone does an okay job, but the real stand-out performance would have to be from Michael Kitchen as the suffering psychiatrist who becomes increasingly unhinged as the story goes on. The fact that there's an hour missing explains why the pacing is all wrong, I guess, and it's possible that I would have enjoyed this a lot more in it's original form as a mini-series.

I wouldn't generally recommend this unless you're a big fan of British TV. You may want to check out the mini-series if you ever get a chance, though.

Alice in Werewolfland

[NoDakTatum · 8/10 · 26 October 2023]

Dumping both the comedy of "An American Werewolf in London" and the surrealism of "The Company of Wolves," this made-for-television film starts with the basics: Alice thinks she is a werewolf. Set in London, Alice (Amanda Ooms) has a nice safe job at the university library, and nice safe one night stands with strangers. Once a month, she locks herself in her basement and turns into a trapped wolf, or maybe not. Alice is seeing psychoanalyst Luther (Michael Kitchen), who is trying to help her without knowing her real concern about turning into a bloodthirsty predator. Alice begins opening her life up to others, and regretting it. Dan (Owen Teale), a penguin researcher, asks her on a date, and the two hit it off. Alice confesses her monthly nocturnal habits to Luther, who immediately dismisses them. Alice takes a chance on a night with a full moon and sleeps with Dan, but wakes up naked in her front yard and hears later that a security guard was killed, and a large dog spotted near the scene. Alice tells Luther that she has been turning into a wolf since she was thirteen and almost assaulted by a local farmhand, who was the wolf's first victim. At this point, the viewer might just agree with Luther- it's all in her head, so what's the point? Luther hypnotizes Alice, and sees something happen to her that changes his beliefs. From there, the film juggles a number of plotlines, all successfully. Wolf researcher Jane (Gemma Jones) worries Alice has a wolf pet, not a wolf personality. Dan does not believe Alice's wild stories, and she breaks up with him. He beds his estranged wife Deborah (Catherine Russell). Luther slowly becomes obsessed with Alice, wanting the certain fame a case like hers would bring. He ignores his bed-hopping wife, and decides that a sexual relationship with Alice should become part of the treatment.

For a television miniseries, the video version was trimmed of almost an hour, but the cuts are not noticeable. Ooms is a good actress, never playing Alice as a victim or idiot. Owen Teale's Dan is one of the most normal guys you will ever see in the movies. The film makers wisely did not make him an expert on werewolves (penguins?!), and Teale plays all the confusion you would feel, if your girlfriend came out as a werewolf, to the hilt. While Kitchen goes a little bonkers too quickly, he also does very well with a very interesting character. His final scenes are the only light moments in the film, his shrub trimming in the garden is a riot. Even the smaller role of Jane is done well by Gemma Jones, who is more concerned for the wolf than anyone but Alice. An attraction to Alice hastens the friendship between the two. While these characters are wonderful, the special effects are lacking. They consist of the mid-1990's morph technique, and never work well. Also, the climax is sad but protracted, a cut here or there may have tightened it up. Good stuff.