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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Title:Wild Country
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Martin Compston, Nicola Muldoon, Jamie Quinn, Kevin Quinn, Samantha Shields
Director: Craig Strachan


Wild Country was the focus of the Glasgow Film Festival's FrightNight showcase, the Scottish premier of a Scottish film. The red carpet having been dragged out while we watched Reeker, for the arrival of cast and crew, all lounging about in their suits and evening dresses, drinking free wine. This changed the entire mood of the day, the film fans being replaced by assorted star wannabes and hangers on. The film's producer sat in the row in front of us, her hairdresser in the row behind. Introductions were made before the film, and there was a brief Q&A after the film. The Wild Country team were also responsible for the shorts that were shown through the day - winners of a competition the production company had set up.

Kelly Ann, a school girl single mother, is upset when she has to put her child up for adoption. But with the pressure of the local priest, her mother, and having been abandoned by the father, it seems she has little choice. Shortly after the birth of the baby Kelly Ann joins a small group of friends on a church organised wild country trek. However as dark falls and they settle down for the night, Kelly Ann swears that she hears a baby crying. The sound is traced to a ruined castle, where they find a baby in amongst the trappings of some animals home. However, by rescuing the baby they have attracted the attention of the best - some kind of monstrous wolf, that is determined to kill them all. Unless they can kill it first.

Despite the pomp of the premiere, Wild Country is essentially a fairly straight forward and basic werewolf film. There are one or two scenes of outstanding grusomeness, but other than that there is little sense of real tension. The monsters have a curious fuzzyness to them, reminding of some kind of knock off Henson product, rather than some nightmare wolf figure.

Watching the film with the cast and crew was a little off putting, and not the way I would necesarily have liked to have seen the film. There is a certain backslapping, laughing at in-jokes response that comes from a showing like this, which doesn't allow for the film to be taken entirely on its own merits. On the whole the film is average, though there is one thing that does make it a peculiarity and provides some potential, and that is just how Scottish it is. The accents and attitude make Wild Country something you don't see every day, even if the same can't be said for the plot or the performance.

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