Technically speaking, Are You Wild Like Me? is an impressive short with lovely cinematography and smart editing. Story-wise, it's far less satisfying, the narrative never really going anywhere. At the end, I was left thinking 'So what?'.
The film opens with an occurrence that I am sure most parents have dreaded, the disappearance of an infant, in this case from her playpen in a rural wooded surrounding. Nine years later, and the same area is plagued with missing people, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why (a big clue being the missing toddler's surname, Lenzi, which any self-respecting horror fan will automatically associate with cannibalism).
It turns out that the missing child has somehow survived dying of exposure, and is now killing people for food. A ten year old child, feral or not, overpowering a series of fully grown adults stretches plausibility, but when she meets and befriends another feral child, it's a step too far. As if the idea of two wild cannibalistic children in the same woods wasn't silly enough, the end of the film shows numerous pairs of eyes glowing in the darkness, which I took to imply that there was a whole pack of killer kids on the prowl. Now that is plain daft.
5/10. Writer/director William Nawrocki III undoubtedly has film-making acumen, but could do with stronger material.
The film opens with an occurrence that I am sure most parents have dreaded, the disappearance of an infant, in this case from her playpen in a rural wooded surrounding. Nine years later, and the same area is plagued with missing people, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why (a big clue being the missing toddler's surname, Lenzi, which any self-respecting horror fan will automatically associate with cannibalism).
It turns out that the missing child has somehow survived dying of exposure, and is now killing people for food. A ten year old child, feral or not, overpowering a series of fully grown adults stretches plausibility, but when she meets and befriends another feral child, it's a step too far. As if the idea of two wild cannibalistic children in the same woods wasn't silly enough, the end of the film shows numerous pairs of eyes glowing in the darkness, which I took to imply that there was a whole pack of killer kids on the prowl. Now that is plain daft.
5/10. Writer/director William Nawrocki III undoubtedly has film-making acumen, but could do with stronger material.
