Reviewed - Wilderness: Assembling disparate characters to live rough in a primitive environment has been a staple of reality TV shows. Wilderness, the second feature from director Michael J Bassett after his quite promising debut with Deathwatch, takes the concept to violent extremes as the protagonists find themselves in a life-or-death dilemma.

An extended pre-credits sequence is set in an English institution for young offenders, where a murderer (Toby Kebbell) has been transferred. He is assigned to a dormitory where some of the teen sociopaths delight in victimising the two weakest boys. After a day in which the inmates urinate on him and lock him in a closet, one boy (John Travers) commits suicide.

The governor orders the warden (Sean Pertwee) to take the six boys from the dormitory to a remote island as a character-building exercise. The island is supposed to be uninhabited, but clearly isn't. To draft in the opposite sex, the screenplay contrives to have the area double-booked by the prison services, and a tough-as-nails ex-army sergeant (Alex Reid) turns up with two young women in her charge.

All the characters are sketchily drawn as stereotypes with a basic distinguishing feature applied to each of them. In the manner of an Agatha Christie mystery, they are killed off one by one, and screenwriter Dario Poloni inventively devises a different but always gruesome demise for each victim. This is much more interesting than the bland elimination process on reality TV shows, and the make-up and effects departments earn their keep as director Bassett piles on the gore.

Wilderness inevitably recalls similar scenarios in movies such as Lord of the Flies, Deliverance and The Blair Witch Project, and while Bassett's film is not an equal to any of them, it certainly matches them in its bleak view of human behaviour, and it proves unremittingly nasty. Peter Robinson's mobile camerawork and some sharp editing propel the action at a vigorous clip.

The movie was shot on various locations in Northern Ireland.