Wild Country is a surprisingly decent little horror film that, sadly, commits cinematic suicide at the very end. You're literally just seconds away from getting up and telling your best mate that the movie wasn't all that bad actually -- and then, bam, a great big lump of steaming stupidity falls right in your lap. Sad, really.

As far as classifying this movie, I'm not going to jump on the werewolf bandwagon; the monster that terrorizes the kids in this movie doesn't look like a wolf to me, and I would say that its proclivity for hunting in the daytime as well as the nighttime disqualifies it as a true werewolf. If that makes it a little harder to explain one aspect of the film that is too plot-sensitive for me to talk about, so be it. So, what is the monster? I've concluded that it can only be one thing: man-bear-pig. It looks like Al Gore was right all along. (This is a South Park reference for anyone wondering what the heck I'm talking about).

Six weeks after giving her newborn baby up for adoption, Kelly Ann (Samantha Shields) decides to go on a hiking/camping trip in the Scottish Highlands with a few friends for no apparent reason. The priest (who just happens to be the person who talked Kelly Ann into giving up her baby in the first place) just drops them off in the middle of bloody nowhere, where they are soon joined by the father of Kelly Ann's baby (who hadn't come around at all during her pregnancy). This is not a recipe for a good time. Before long, though, Kelly Ann starts hearing a baby crying in the distance, making you think this is going to be some sort of psychological film centered on Kelly Ann's sense of guilt and regret over her own baby. Then the silly-looking monster shows up, and it turns into your basic survival-type horror film.

One thing is without question -- the night scenes in this movie were definitely filmed at night. On the one hand, this sometimes makes it hard to tell what you're seeing (especially when you're busy trying to interpret the actors' heavy Scottish accents); on the other hand, the darkness makes the monster much more menacing. Once you see the monster in the light of day, it's a little harder to take it seriously.

Apart from the monster, though, the special effects aren't too bad, although I think the filmmakers tried a little too hard to impress with one of the killings. As the movie makes the turn and heads down the home stretch, it's actually in a pretty good position. Then, out of nowhere, you get the horrible ending. You can sort of predict what might happen in the end, but you certainly don't expect it to play out in such a silly way. I hate to see a decent film shoot itself in the foot, but that is exactly what happens here.