Fandom: Wild Country
Feb. 25th, 2010 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
escritoireazulIt's been awhile since I did one of these, but I just found Wild Country for free via On Demand, and I thought I'd give it a try.
IMDB Taglines: The Chase Is On; It's Primal; and There's no escape from the beast within.
GOOD TIMES.
Credits are scary white silhouettes of trees against a black background.
Opens with Glasgow teenager Kelly Ann giving birth. She's not allowed to hold her baby after, and for all that she's exhausted and has been in severe pain, also looks sad. Later, slightly cleaned up and sitting with her mother (I assume), she's silent and depressed. A priest comes in to tell her that the parents who are adopting the baby are very happy and she's done a good thing, making a baby. Kelly Ann doesn't give a flying fuck about that and tells the priest to get the hell out. In the background, the baby cries. (Though unless this is a very small hospital, it's a big assumption that it's her baby, but I think it's clear that's the assumption the movie wants us to make.) Kelly Ann's mother was also a teenage mother and the movie pulls out that good old line about not making the same mistakes as your parents.
I can already tell I should have gotten a nice caffeinated drink for this.
Six Weeks Later
A youth club van pulls up to collect Kelly Anna, who is sitting in the dark in her room listening to the radio and pumping milk from her breasts. It's a quiet, painful little scene. She then puts the milk in the fridge, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, until she tells one of the people who's come to pick her up that they pay her for it. It's a more subtle bit of dialog than I'm making it out to be; I was just impressed that the movie managed to answer my question immediately. Nicely done, movie.
There's a priest again, I think the same priest. There are at least three other teens in the van with Kelly Ann, but I only caught the name of one of them, David. They're all acquaintances at least, if not something like friends, and, along with Father Steve and the other adult, are on their way to hike across the Scottish highlands.
Father Steve tells a story about this Scottish cannibal, his wife, fourteen children, and thirty grandchildren who ambushed travelers, took them back to the cave, and ate them. If this is another one of those movies where the promised beast chasing the hikers ends up being a cannibal, I will be frustrated.
The kids are slightly disturbed by the story despite their too-cool-to-care attitude. Also, just because you have the blood of the cannibals in your blood doesn't mean you too will become one.
Another name! The other teenage boy is Mark. He's kind of the beta male and the others pick on him a lot. David is the cooler alpha male who possibly does drugs. I'm hoping for a scene where they all get high together, but I'm doubting it.
Father Steve has just dropped off the four kids and won't be picking them up until noon tomorrow at a farm with a bed and breakfast, where I'm assuming he's staying. I don't know if I'd drop off these kids who seem to be having trouble reading the maps while they're still on the road. All except the one girl whose name I still haven't caught.
There's a brief shot where one of the boys contacts someone on a mobile and then he comes out of nowhere to join them. From Kelly's reaction, I think he's an ex-boyfriend -- and likely the baby daddy, for character conservation -- and I caught the other girl's name, Louise.
Man, Kelly is definitely carrying some anger. Lee says Father Steve told him she was upset about having to give up the baby and that's why he stayed away, which makes her angry, but more at Father Steve than Lee, until Lee says that the baby's in good hands and that's all that matters and Kelly kicks him so hard in the balls he goes down. Nicely done, Kelly.
Then they hear something Kelly thinks is a baby crying -- and then it starts to sound like a baby crying, until they see sheep, a dog, and a shepherd and seem to forget about the sounds of the baby crying. Shepherd man is wearing lots of sheepskin like a fur collar.
He doesn't seem too happy to see them, and creepily stares at Kelly and Louise. Hilariously, Lee gets all snarky at the shepherd's back and goes to grab himself as a punchline of the joke, forgetting Kelly just kicked him, and he hurts himself again. Idiot boy.
Father Steve arrives at what's supposed to be a bed and breakfast. It has dead birds in a planter and no one else in the parking lot. Goddamnit, this is looking more like a cannibal movie every second. Missy, the one who runs the B&B, is pretty cute, with her red hair and big grin and sense of humor.
Back to the Teens Who Probably Shouldn't Be Alone in the Wilderness (Such as It Is), they've set up camp and made beans. Lee pulls out beers for everyone but Mark, who they say is too young. Kelly doesn't drink, I assume because she's selling her milk.
She also goes off on her own to piss, which is stupid, Kelly, haven't you ever watched a horror movie. She hears something behind her and we see it's the shepherd watching her piss. She starts screaming and at first the others think it's a prank, then come running to see what's going on. They chase off shepherd.
Who stops after awhile, panting and smiling creepily, and then hears something roaring which rapidly attacks him out of the darkness and rips out his throat. The blood spurts in great gushes and I am highly amused by the flash of the fur we see. I'm still not sure this isn't a cannibal movie, but I have more hope it's not.
Louise doesn't want to stay in the camp, but the others out vote her from leaving. They set up a watch and Lee is first. After the others all go to bed, Kelly comes out of the tent because she couldn't sleep and they start talking.
Lee tries to kiss Kelly and she asks if he wants another kick in the balls. She hears the baby cry again, but Lee doesn't seem to hear it. She takes off into the darkness without a flashlight and Kelly, I want to like you, but it's hard when you keep doing stupid stuff like this. Though it's possible that she knows Lee will follow her, which he does.
In some ruins, they hop the gate keeping them out -- a very small gate -- and Kelly keeps searching for the baby she hears crying. They go down crumbly stone steps and Lee notes a horrible smell. It likely turns out to be sheep, but I'm still not ruling out weird cannibal movie. As soon as Lee says the sheep must be their abandoned baby, they start to hear the crying again. They find a drop down to another ledge, with blood and bits of meat strewn about, and a naked baby. Kelly jumps down first and they find what's left of the shepherd, bare bones and torn throat and blood and all. Kelly rescues the baby and as they're trying to leave, makes Lee give her his jacket. When he does, his mobile falls out and they don't take the time to get it.
We get a shot from the beast's point of view and it's nearby. Obviously, since that was clearly its lair. Kelly and Lee leave the ruins and go to wake the others. Lee wakes Louise and Dave by saying the sheep fucking pervert is in the ruins, cut up -- and oh yeah, Kelly found a baby. What a way to wake up. Kelly's breastfeeding the baby throughout this, and apparently the baby is getting a tooth. If I was the writer, this would be a shapeshifting beast horror movie (which I haven't yet abandoned hope for) and she would have just been infected.
The battery's dead on Dave's mobile and no one else has one. Good plan, kids. Kelly says they have to get the baby out of there and tell the police, so they go hiking through the darkness.
They hear something roaring in the darkness and then realize that Mark has disappeared without them even noticing. He was supposed to be right behind Dave, but isn't. Then they see his flashlight on the ground and when they shine their lights over it, see it's still held in his hand, but is all bloody, the flesh torn.
Wow, they are falling apart rather quickly. They're already saying fuck the baby and are fighting each other, until they see something in the trees and all take off running. Lee is the one who says they all have to stay together, no stragglers, no one gets left behind. That's good in theory, Lee, but y'all don't look so good under pressure.
The beast has run off for some reason and as they walk they try to figure out what it was. They suggest a lion, among other things, and that it was keeping the baby to eat later. Then they startle some birds and Louise falls down a hill. A hill I didn't even realize was there. This movie is shot from some interesting angles. She can't move her arm, she's done something to her shoulder, and the guys argue over who is going to go get her and help her up -- or rather, Dave is a little reluctant to go, but Lee again stresses that they can't leave anyone behind. Dave goes to get her and while he's making his way down to her, Lee and Kelly see the beast coming and start throwing rocks at it, to no avail. Kelly sends Lee down to help Dave, claiming she's safe up there with the baby. I'm not sure why Louise is still on the ground; she can sit up and move around, but hasn't gotten up. I know she's in pain, but if I thought a beast was hunting me -- and it is -- I'd be struggling to my feet, hurt shoulder or not. Plus the way she scoots across the ground would put pressure on it anyway and she's managed that.
Of course, this way we get the dramatic scene with Louise and the beast face to face.
My On Demand just cut off for some reason, but I was able to get back into it.
The beast leaves Louise unharmed and goes after Kelly and the baby, just as the boys have gotten down to Louise. They can't manage to get back to Kelly, so are screaming at her to run, but instead she makes some sort of torch fireball thing and chucks it at the beast. Kelly is kinda a badass.
Except then the beast goes back and rips out Louise's throat.
Lee comforts Kelly, who feels responsible, but Dave is certain they are all going to die. This movie is oddly fast-paced. Kelly and Dave both think the beast is clever, too. Kelly decides that they have to kill it, using the one knife they have and they could sharpen sticks to make spears. Dave points out that it's too fast for them to catch and Kelly says they know where it leaves and even if they don't "get lucky and kill the fucker," if they go back to the castle (oh, that's what the ruins were! I should have thought about that), they can find a place to hole up and last until morning.
Good luck with that, sweetie.
(Aside, I keep thinking this is a very dark movie, and maybe it is, but I really need to get a new television, and I think that might be the real problem. I don't want to get one, though, because I plan to get a projector after I move, but I'm not sure I can handle this darkness and might have to suck it up and find something cheap.)
They make their way down into the castle, back to the lair, and I have to say, if I planned on holing up for safety, I wouldn't go down into the lair where I knew the beast has access and possibly multiple entrances. Idiots. Though maybe that's the only part of the castle they can access?
Dave pisses on the lair to let it know who's boss. Oh, Dave, even if I didn't already think you were dead, I would now. Oh, god, and Lee's joined him. Stupid boys. Kelly is just as unimpressed as I am.
Now they're going up, so maybe the lair is at the base of the rest of the castle? No, I am going to stop trying to figure it out and just go with it. At least they're climbing away from the lair, even if I think they need to be watching their back better.
Kelly finds some place she thinks they'll be safe enough, but again, if they don't start watching their back, I doubt it. They settle in for the night and we're given shots of the former campsite and their dead friends. In the castle, the boys are sleeping and Kelly is feeding the baby again. Dave wakes up and makes some crack about being thirsty too, but Lee wakes up too and shoots that right down.
They've survived until morning, but, again, since they crossed through the lair in order to get where they are, I am doubting their safety. Lee checks out the tiny window and sees the beast at the edge of the trees. Kelly says she has a plan to kill it.
It's coming back to its lair for the night and when it gets there, finds Kelly holding the baby and the spear. The beast has some really horrible special effects. Kelly leads it into the stairs, which it seems slightly too big for, and the boys roll big rocks down at it. They think it's dead, but no one seems very eager to go see for sure. Finally the guys take their spears and go to see, leaving Kelly with the baby. (The beast broke Kelly's spear in the stairs.)
The beast is wounded enough for the guys to kill with their spears, which, since they are only sharpened sticks, involves a lot of beating the beast to death. Kelly comes down and watches this, a strange look on her face.
Then the beast's mate arrives and kills Dave. Nicely done. Shame it was totally expected. Also, the second beast looks a lot like a bear.
Kelly and Lee use this time to flee with the baby, but the beast is too fast and they know they can't outrun it. The find a giant tree that they climb, Lee only just making it after helping Kelly climb. Lee is sitting on a branch and mocking it, which means I'm waiting for it to leap up and kill him. Kelly isn't sure the beast will ever go away.
Sure enough, night starts to fall again and Kelly asks what Lee thinks the baby's name is. She says he looks like a Jack. Then Kelly says that Father Steve lied to Lee, and she really wanted to see him the whole time. It's actually rather touching, their little scene, especially with Kelly broken up about letting their son be adopted.
The beast walks away from a moment and Kelly says they should sit tight, but then they hear an engine and Lee hops down, sure the beast has been scared away. Immediately the beast appears again and they play ring around the tree for awhile, until Lee gets out his tiny knife and then takes off running, drawing the beast away, so Kelly can escape. His screams echo in the distance as Kelly runs.
She runs for what seems quite awhile, considering the engine supposedly sounded close, and the camera starts doing some awkward first person movement that, if it goes on for long, will mean I have to stop watching. It's obviously trying to be dramatic but failing. Also, up until this point, we've only seen first person from the beast's point of view, so because of the way the camera moves, it looks like there are five or ten beasts.
Kelly runs into a dead end, so maybe it's not that the engine was far away but that she's running in the wrong direction. Then the beast appears on the stones above her and she flees again, until she takes a tumble. For something that is supposed to be so fast, the beast sure is taking its time getting to her. She falls again, in a field of big horn sheep? I don't even know. Then a guy on an ATV comes up and Kelly tells him her story. Then he sees his long-horned sheep, which look more like cows so maybe they are but it's funnier if they're sheep, gathering together and finds one dead. It then starts to twitch and in a hilariouswolf beast in sheep's clothes moment, the beast explodes out from inside the fallen sheep-cow and kills the guy on the ATV.
Kelly gets the ATV going and barely escapes the beast, even though, again, if it's that fast, she should be dead. Is this one of those the mom appreciates you taking care of her baby things? Anyway, Kelly gets to the B&B where we find Hot Missy and Father Steve in bed together. Missy is even hotter with her hair all messed up. Kelly starts yelling for him and he flees the bed. Missy obviously had no idea he was a priest and finds it highly amusing.
Wow, Kelly looks rough for one night in the wilderness. I suppose seeing your friends killed, killing one beast, and running away from another will do that to you. Hot Missy is somehow even hotter today, all dressed and with her hair partially bound back.
Kelly goes upstairs to get cleaned up and won't let Hot Missy hold the baby. When she's left alone, Kelly stares out the window into the bleak daylight, but we don't see the beast. Father Steve then creepily comes in and asks if there's anything she wants to tell him before the police arrive. He doesn't believe her story about the beasts and her friends being dead and accuses her of stealing the baby. (He calls it a wolf, so she must have called it a wolf, but those beasts looked nothing at all like wolves. Dude.) He says he's seen it before in birth mothers and he thought she was dealing with her depression. When he asks how she thinks the baby's mother feels, she says she knows exactly how it feels because he took her baby away from her. He's aghast at this accusation.
Kelly then accuses Father Steve of having sex with Hot Missy because she can smell it all over him. I am delightfully creeped out by this, and so glad I was proven right. Father Steve goes to find Missy, but she's not where he thought she was downstairs. Then we see Missy outside feeding her chickens. Father Steve asks if she said anything to Kelly about them having sex and she says she'll keep his secret, but he's paying for her abortion if she's pregnant. She finds this highly amusing, even though Father Steve is just pissed off.
She's then terrified because the beast is there. Father Steve locks her out of the house and she's then killed. Thanks a lot, Father Steve. Upstairs, Kelly's feeding the baby again and, delightfully, starting to go through her own transformation, complete with fangs. So glad this didn't turn out to be a cannibal movie!
Father Steve listens to the beast kill Missy and then when the beast starts trying to break down the door, he runs upstairs and locks himself into the room with Kelly, who has fully become a wolf and kills him. End scene, Kelly-beast, other beast, and baby beast are walking in the sunlight together and a version of "Lil' Red Riding Hood" starts playing. BEST ENDING!
I stand by my statement that those beasts looked NOTHING AT ALL LIKE WOLVES and far more like bears, but whatever.
I love that Kelly did steal someone else's baby and everything that happened after happened because the parents wanted him back. Not that I'm saying they would have survived if she hadn't, but I loved that so much of this story was about frustrated parental love. I dislike the idea that just because a woman gives a child up for adoption, she becomes a monster (literally here), but that is mitigated somewhat by the fact that it could also be saying that when someone in power who forces a woman into a particular path without allowing her a choice leads to some form of death and destruction.
Short version: Strangely satisfying movie I want to own and watch over and over again. So much love for the main character, Kelly, and the story itself, even if the special effects were somewhat lacking. It left me giddy with the excitement of a horror movie gone right.
IMDB Taglines: The Chase Is On; It's Primal; and There's no escape from the beast within.
GOOD TIMES.
Credits are scary white silhouettes of trees against a black background.
Opens with Glasgow teenager Kelly Ann giving birth. She's not allowed to hold her baby after, and for all that she's exhausted and has been in severe pain, also looks sad. Later, slightly cleaned up and sitting with her mother (I assume), she's silent and depressed. A priest comes in to tell her that the parents who are adopting the baby are very happy and she's done a good thing, making a baby. Kelly Ann doesn't give a flying fuck about that and tells the priest to get the hell out. In the background, the baby cries. (Though unless this is a very small hospital, it's a big assumption that it's her baby, but I think it's clear that's the assumption the movie wants us to make.) Kelly Ann's mother was also a teenage mother and the movie pulls out that good old line about not making the same mistakes as your parents.
I can already tell I should have gotten a nice caffeinated drink for this.
A youth club van pulls up to collect Kelly Anna, who is sitting in the dark in her room listening to the radio and pumping milk from her breasts. It's a quiet, painful little scene. She then puts the milk in the fridge, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, until she tells one of the people who's come to pick her up that they pay her for it. It's a more subtle bit of dialog than I'm making it out to be; I was just impressed that the movie managed to answer my question immediately. Nicely done, movie.
There's a priest again, I think the same priest. There are at least three other teens in the van with Kelly Ann, but I only caught the name of one of them, David. They're all acquaintances at least, if not something like friends, and, along with Father Steve and the other adult, are on their way to hike across the Scottish highlands.
Father Steve tells a story about this Scottish cannibal, his wife, fourteen children, and thirty grandchildren who ambushed travelers, took them back to the cave, and ate them. If this is another one of those movies where the promised beast chasing the hikers ends up being a cannibal, I will be frustrated.
The kids are slightly disturbed by the story despite their too-cool-to-care attitude. Also, just because you have the blood of the cannibals in your blood doesn't mean you too will become one.
Another name! The other teenage boy is Mark. He's kind of the beta male and the others pick on him a lot. David is the cooler alpha male who possibly does drugs. I'm hoping for a scene where they all get high together, but I'm doubting it.
Father Steve has just dropped off the four kids and won't be picking them up until noon tomorrow at a farm with a bed and breakfast, where I'm assuming he's staying. I don't know if I'd drop off these kids who seem to be having trouble reading the maps while they're still on the road. All except the one girl whose name I still haven't caught.
There's a brief shot where one of the boys contacts someone on a mobile and then he comes out of nowhere to join them. From Kelly's reaction, I think he's an ex-boyfriend -- and likely the baby daddy, for character conservation -- and I caught the other girl's name, Louise.
Man, Kelly is definitely carrying some anger. Lee says Father Steve told him she was upset about having to give up the baby and that's why he stayed away, which makes her angry, but more at Father Steve than Lee, until Lee says that the baby's in good hands and that's all that matters and Kelly kicks him so hard in the balls he goes down. Nicely done, Kelly.
Then they hear something Kelly thinks is a baby crying -- and then it starts to sound like a baby crying, until they see sheep, a dog, and a shepherd and seem to forget about the sounds of the baby crying. Shepherd man is wearing lots of sheepskin like a fur collar.
He doesn't seem too happy to see them, and creepily stares at Kelly and Louise. Hilariously, Lee gets all snarky at the shepherd's back and goes to grab himself as a punchline of the joke, forgetting Kelly just kicked him, and he hurts himself again. Idiot boy.
Father Steve arrives at what's supposed to be a bed and breakfast. It has dead birds in a planter and no one else in the parking lot. Goddamnit, this is looking more like a cannibal movie every second. Missy, the one who runs the B&B, is pretty cute, with her red hair and big grin and sense of humor.
Back to the Teens Who Probably Shouldn't Be Alone in the Wilderness (Such as It Is), they've set up camp and made beans. Lee pulls out beers for everyone but Mark, who they say is too young. Kelly doesn't drink, I assume because she's selling her milk.
She also goes off on her own to piss, which is stupid, Kelly, haven't you ever watched a horror movie. She hears something behind her and we see it's the shepherd watching her piss. She starts screaming and at first the others think it's a prank, then come running to see what's going on. They chase off shepherd.
Who stops after awhile, panting and smiling creepily, and then hears something roaring which rapidly attacks him out of the darkness and rips out his throat. The blood spurts in great gushes and I am highly amused by the flash of the fur we see. I'm still not sure this isn't a cannibal movie, but I have more hope it's not.
Louise doesn't want to stay in the camp, but the others out vote her from leaving. They set up a watch and Lee is first. After the others all go to bed, Kelly comes out of the tent because she couldn't sleep and they start talking.
Lee tries to kiss Kelly and she asks if he wants another kick in the balls. She hears the baby cry again, but Lee doesn't seem to hear it. She takes off into the darkness without a flashlight and Kelly, I want to like you, but it's hard when you keep doing stupid stuff like this. Though it's possible that she knows Lee will follow her, which he does.
In some ruins, they hop the gate keeping them out -- a very small gate -- and Kelly keeps searching for the baby she hears crying. They go down crumbly stone steps and Lee notes a horrible smell. It likely turns out to be sheep, but I'm still not ruling out weird cannibal movie. As soon as Lee says the sheep must be their abandoned baby, they start to hear the crying again. They find a drop down to another ledge, with blood and bits of meat strewn about, and a naked baby. Kelly jumps down first and they find what's left of the shepherd, bare bones and torn throat and blood and all. Kelly rescues the baby and as they're trying to leave, makes Lee give her his jacket. When he does, his mobile falls out and they don't take the time to get it.
We get a shot from the beast's point of view and it's nearby. Obviously, since that was clearly its lair. Kelly and Lee leave the ruins and go to wake the others. Lee wakes Louise and Dave by saying the sheep fucking pervert is in the ruins, cut up -- and oh yeah, Kelly found a baby. What a way to wake up. Kelly's breastfeeding the baby throughout this, and apparently the baby is getting a tooth. If I was the writer, this would be a shapeshifting beast horror movie (which I haven't yet abandoned hope for) and she would have just been infected.
The battery's dead on Dave's mobile and no one else has one. Good plan, kids. Kelly says they have to get the baby out of there and tell the police, so they go hiking through the darkness.
They hear something roaring in the darkness and then realize that Mark has disappeared without them even noticing. He was supposed to be right behind Dave, but isn't. Then they see his flashlight on the ground and when they shine their lights over it, see it's still held in his hand, but is all bloody, the flesh torn.
Wow, they are falling apart rather quickly. They're already saying fuck the baby and are fighting each other, until they see something in the trees and all take off running. Lee is the one who says they all have to stay together, no stragglers, no one gets left behind. That's good in theory, Lee, but y'all don't look so good under pressure.
The beast has run off for some reason and as they walk they try to figure out what it was. They suggest a lion, among other things, and that it was keeping the baby to eat later. Then they startle some birds and Louise falls down a hill. A hill I didn't even realize was there. This movie is shot from some interesting angles. She can't move her arm, she's done something to her shoulder, and the guys argue over who is going to go get her and help her up -- or rather, Dave is a little reluctant to go, but Lee again stresses that they can't leave anyone behind. Dave goes to get her and while he's making his way down to her, Lee and Kelly see the beast coming and start throwing rocks at it, to no avail. Kelly sends Lee down to help Dave, claiming she's safe up there with the baby. I'm not sure why Louise is still on the ground; she can sit up and move around, but hasn't gotten up. I know she's in pain, but if I thought a beast was hunting me -- and it is -- I'd be struggling to my feet, hurt shoulder or not. Plus the way she scoots across the ground would put pressure on it anyway and she's managed that.
Of course, this way we get the dramatic scene with Louise and the beast face to face.
My On Demand just cut off for some reason, but I was able to get back into it.
The beast leaves Louise unharmed and goes after Kelly and the baby, just as the boys have gotten down to Louise. They can't manage to get back to Kelly, so are screaming at her to run, but instead she makes some sort of torch fireball thing and chucks it at the beast. Kelly is kinda a badass.
Except then the beast goes back and rips out Louise's throat.
Lee comforts Kelly, who feels responsible, but Dave is certain they are all going to die. This movie is oddly fast-paced. Kelly and Dave both think the beast is clever, too. Kelly decides that they have to kill it, using the one knife they have and they could sharpen sticks to make spears. Dave points out that it's too fast for them to catch and Kelly says they know where it leaves and even if they don't "get lucky and kill the fucker," if they go back to the castle (oh, that's what the ruins were! I should have thought about that), they can find a place to hole up and last until morning.
Good luck with that, sweetie.
(Aside, I keep thinking this is a very dark movie, and maybe it is, but I really need to get a new television, and I think that might be the real problem. I don't want to get one, though, because I plan to get a projector after I move, but I'm not sure I can handle this darkness and might have to suck it up and find something cheap.)
They make their way down into the castle, back to the lair, and I have to say, if I planned on holing up for safety, I wouldn't go down into the lair where I knew the beast has access and possibly multiple entrances. Idiots. Though maybe that's the only part of the castle they can access?
Dave pisses on the lair to let it know who's boss. Oh, Dave, even if I didn't already think you were dead, I would now. Oh, god, and Lee's joined him. Stupid boys. Kelly is just as unimpressed as I am.
Now they're going up, so maybe the lair is at the base of the rest of the castle? No, I am going to stop trying to figure it out and just go with it. At least they're climbing away from the lair, even if I think they need to be watching their back better.
Kelly finds some place she thinks they'll be safe enough, but again, if they don't start watching their back, I doubt it. They settle in for the night and we're given shots of the former campsite and their dead friends. In the castle, the boys are sleeping and Kelly is feeding the baby again. Dave wakes up and makes some crack about being thirsty too, but Lee wakes up too and shoots that right down.
They've survived until morning, but, again, since they crossed through the lair in order to get where they are, I am doubting their safety. Lee checks out the tiny window and sees the beast at the edge of the trees. Kelly says she has a plan to kill it.
It's coming back to its lair for the night and when it gets there, finds Kelly holding the baby and the spear. The beast has some really horrible special effects. Kelly leads it into the stairs, which it seems slightly too big for, and the boys roll big rocks down at it. They think it's dead, but no one seems very eager to go see for sure. Finally the guys take their spears and go to see, leaving Kelly with the baby. (The beast broke Kelly's spear in the stairs.)
The beast is wounded enough for the guys to kill with their spears, which, since they are only sharpened sticks, involves a lot of beating the beast to death. Kelly comes down and watches this, a strange look on her face.
Then the beast's mate arrives and kills Dave. Nicely done. Shame it was totally expected. Also, the second beast looks a lot like a bear.
Kelly and Lee use this time to flee with the baby, but the beast is too fast and they know they can't outrun it. The find a giant tree that they climb, Lee only just making it after helping Kelly climb. Lee is sitting on a branch and mocking it, which means I'm waiting for it to leap up and kill him. Kelly isn't sure the beast will ever go away.
Sure enough, night starts to fall again and Kelly asks what Lee thinks the baby's name is. She says he looks like a Jack. Then Kelly says that Father Steve lied to Lee, and she really wanted to see him the whole time. It's actually rather touching, their little scene, especially with Kelly broken up about letting their son be adopted.
The beast walks away from a moment and Kelly says they should sit tight, but then they hear an engine and Lee hops down, sure the beast has been scared away. Immediately the beast appears again and they play ring around the tree for awhile, until Lee gets out his tiny knife and then takes off running, drawing the beast away, so Kelly can escape. His screams echo in the distance as Kelly runs.
She runs for what seems quite awhile, considering the engine supposedly sounded close, and the camera starts doing some awkward first person movement that, if it goes on for long, will mean I have to stop watching. It's obviously trying to be dramatic but failing. Also, up until this point, we've only seen first person from the beast's point of view, so because of the way the camera moves, it looks like there are five or ten beasts.
Kelly runs into a dead end, so maybe it's not that the engine was far away but that she's running in the wrong direction. Then the beast appears on the stones above her and she flees again, until she takes a tumble. For something that is supposed to be so fast, the beast sure is taking its time getting to her. She falls again, in a field of big horn sheep? I don't even know. Then a guy on an ATV comes up and Kelly tells him her story. Then he sees his long-horned sheep, which look more like cows so maybe they are but it's funnier if they're sheep, gathering together and finds one dead. It then starts to twitch and in a hilarious
Kelly gets the ATV going and barely escapes the beast, even though, again, if it's that fast, she should be dead. Is this one of those the mom appreciates you taking care of her baby things? Anyway, Kelly gets to the B&B where we find Hot Missy and Father Steve in bed together. Missy is even hotter with her hair all messed up. Kelly starts yelling for him and he flees the bed. Missy obviously had no idea he was a priest and finds it highly amusing.
Wow, Kelly looks rough for one night in the wilderness. I suppose seeing your friends killed, killing one beast, and running away from another will do that to you. Hot Missy is somehow even hotter today, all dressed and with her hair partially bound back.
Kelly goes upstairs to get cleaned up and won't let Hot Missy hold the baby. When she's left alone, Kelly stares out the window into the bleak daylight, but we don't see the beast. Father Steve then creepily comes in and asks if there's anything she wants to tell him before the police arrive. He doesn't believe her story about the beasts and her friends being dead and accuses her of stealing the baby. (He calls it a wolf, so she must have called it a wolf, but those beasts looked nothing at all like wolves. Dude.) He says he's seen it before in birth mothers and he thought she was dealing with her depression. When he asks how she thinks the baby's mother feels, she says she knows exactly how it feels because he took her baby away from her. He's aghast at this accusation.
Kelly then accuses Father Steve of having sex with Hot Missy because she can smell it all over him. I am delightfully creeped out by this, and so glad I was proven right. Father Steve goes to find Missy, but she's not where he thought she was downstairs. Then we see Missy outside feeding her chickens. Father Steve asks if she said anything to Kelly about them having sex and she says she'll keep his secret, but he's paying for her abortion if she's pregnant. She finds this highly amusing, even though Father Steve is just pissed off.
She's then terrified because the beast is there. Father Steve locks her out of the house and she's then killed. Thanks a lot, Father Steve. Upstairs, Kelly's feeding the baby again and, delightfully, starting to go through her own transformation, complete with fangs. So glad this didn't turn out to be a cannibal movie!
Father Steve listens to the beast kill Missy and then when the beast starts trying to break down the door, he runs upstairs and locks himself into the room with Kelly, who has fully become a wolf and kills him. End scene, Kelly-beast, other beast, and baby beast are walking in the sunlight together and a version of "Lil' Red Riding Hood" starts playing. BEST ENDING!
I stand by my statement that those beasts looked NOTHING AT ALL LIKE WOLVES and far more like bears, but whatever.
I love that Kelly did steal someone else's baby and everything that happened after happened because the parents wanted him back. Not that I'm saying they would have survived if she hadn't, but I loved that so much of this story was about frustrated parental love. I dislike the idea that just because a woman gives a child up for adoption, she becomes a monster (literally here), but that is mitigated somewhat by the fact that it could also be saying that when someone in power who forces a woman into a particular path without allowing her a choice leads to some form of death and destruction.
Short version: Strangely satisfying movie I want to own and watch over and over again. So much love for the main character, Kelly, and the story itself, even if the special effects were somewhat lacking. It left me giddy with the excitement of a horror movie gone right.
