There are several things in horror movies that have become a common trope over the years: the cabin in the woods, the campers lost in the wilderness, infected zombies, you know the score. One film, Feral, has them all. That it’s still an enjoyable ride is admirable.
A group of six friends – all coupled up – head off looking for a remote lake that one of them used to visit when they were young. Realising they’re lost, they set up camp for the night. Five of the number are all medical students, while one, Jules (Olivia Luccardi) is somewhat an outsider, along for the ride as Alice’s new girlfriend. Or first girlfriend, come to mention it, as she’s yet to come out to her parents and has previously had a relationship with Jess (Brock Kelly). Scout Taylor-Compton, who found fame in the Rob Zombie Halloween films, plays Alice, who’s training as an epidemiologist and is as smart as they come, if lacking the backbone to assert herself properly. This causes some ructions later on, which we’ll come to.
Before the group heads to their tents for some well-earned shut eye, talk turns to what might be out there in the woods. Surprisingly (if not shockingly), some of them hadn’t realised that there might be wild animals roaming in their natural habitat (we’re guessing medical students don’t think about thing other than the human body…). Little do they know there are some very wild things out there. Once in their tent, Matt (George Finn) proposes to Brienne (Renee Olstead). Well, in a fashion; he whips out a ring and says very little else except that he needs to go to pee. Now normally in this sort of movie, there would be some act of coupling that will foreshadow a grisly demise. Not so here, in a remarkable bucking of cliché, it’s this romantic gesture that is the death knell. He’s set upon post-slash by a creature that we don’t quite get a look at. It’s savage and tears at Matt leaving him a bloody mess. Considering how earlier he’d been saying how he was planning on becoming a urologist, it’s amazing they didn’t have the creature cut off Matt mid-flow, so to speak. Brienne, clearly not having the best hearing as she’s missed Matt’s haunting screams, leaves the tent to see where he is. In a way, it’s a good job he wasn’t having a number two, but what she finds is just as horrifying. She, too, is attacked by the beast but is left standing with just a nasty gash on her face. The rest of the gang hear her, thankfully, and worriedly take her into their care. When they go back to find Matt’s body, however, it’s missing and they assume another animal has taken it or eaten him.
The next day, a loner who lives in a remote cabin comes across them and offers to help look after Brienne while some of the others go to get help. You know there’s going to be no mobile reception (it’s hard enough getting a decent signal in some parts of England, so you’re certainly going to be out of luck here!) and Talbot (played by another Halloween alumni Lew Temple) conveniently doesn’t have a phone.
You probably don’t have to have seen a hundred horror movies to begin to figure out what’s going on, but Feral does spring a few surprises to the formula. Of course, Talbot knows more about what’s going on than he initially lets on – and the prologue at the start of the movie shows a bloke shooting a screaming woman chained to a spring bedstead so it’s pretty heavily telegraphed – but the real story is actually more outlandish than anyone could have guessed.
Without descending into spoilers too much, there’s someone roaming the woods who’s infected with what Talbot calls the ‘feral virus’; once scratched or bitten by an infected person, the victim will die a horrifically painful death (and lose their hair, which is almost just a bad!) but then become resurrected as a mindless, rage-filled killing machine. So naturally, that means Matt must already be up and about and Brienne hasn’t got much longer until she joins him.
Feral is ably directed and co-written (along with Adam Frazier) by Mark Young, and surprisingly, it’s the journeyman nature of the film that makes it enjoyable. Sure, the dialogue’s hackneyed and the scenario predictable, but within that familiarity there’s some strong acting and Young delivers the shocks with some successful jump scares and several genuinely creepy moments.
Despite some clichés, there are ways in which Feral bucks the trends usually followed by low budget horror films that may have been overlooked by others quick to dismiss it. Where some might have a bigger name star on the bill (as Scout Taylor-Compton is here), they are usually used as cinematic click bait and more often dispatched early in the proceedings or relegated to a brief, inconsequential cameo. There are obviously budgetary reasons for this, but in Feral, Taylor-Compton (admittedly not a major name, but certainly a cult actor) is a strong presence throughout and whose character also bucks another trope: in that the ‘final girl’ this time is gay. The relationship is handled well, too, with Taylor-Compton’s Alice voicing concerns about how her sexuality will be accepted by her father, who’s devoutly religious. This puts a natural strain on the way her partner feels; the pair go from completely secure to almost at loggerheads. That she’s also slept with one of the guys on the trip doesn’t help either. Jesse has even more issues with it, even though he’s come along with Gina (Landry Allbright, best known as Nicolas Cage’s daughter in Con Air, but all grown up now), his heart – or at least ‘little head’ – is still firmly attracted to Alice. So much so that when he has to go to get help with Jules in tow, he takes the opportunity to speak his bigoted mind. Telling her that Alice is just “going through some crazy dyke phase” tips her over the edge, and she pushes him to the ground – right onto a bear trap. Unfortunately, we can’t revel in schadenfreude for too long as he was their best shot at getting out of their predicament and since Jules can’t help get the trap open and off his foot, she has to leave him to go back to the cabin and get help.
Given that the males are despatched pretty quick in Feral gives it a more positive gender bias for a change, something that can’t be overlooked. The effects, too, are refreshingly practical and suitably icky. Early on, we’re only given fleeting glimpses of the creatures, which adds to the atmosphere and but doesn’t shy away from the gory details of the attacks and their aftermath. When we do get a good look at them, they are very impressive – a cross between Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead zombies and the rage infected from Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later.
As mentioned, Feral won’t win any awards for originality, but it shows that director Mark Young is a talent to watch out for and is well worth checking out. His next film – Limbo, starring James Purefoy, Chad Lindberg, and Veronica Cartwright – is set to be released later this year.
FERAL screens on Horror Channel. Sky 317 Virgin 149 Freeview 70 Freesat 138.
