Film

The Last Great Wilderness

Name: The Last Great Wilderness
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Released: 2002
Cast: Alastair Mackenzie, Jonny Phillips, Ewan Stewart, David Hayman, Victoria Smurfit

Vigilante

A man travels to Scotland's Isle of Skye to burn down his ex-wife's new lover's mansion, but gets stranded at an isolated house inhabited by a strange, possibly cultish group. What follows is a tense, darkly funny thriller where desperation and paranoia collide with genuine weirdness. For viewers who want their thrillers weird, claustrophobic, and genuinely unpredictable.

If you liked this

Shallow Grave1994

Debut thriller about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, with the same Scottish setting and knack for building dread from confined spaces and moral compromises.

But The 1990s stylisation hasn't aged universally well, and it can feel more interested in looking cool than earning its scares.

Come True2020

Unsettling sci-fi about isolation and paranoia, with a similar willingness to make you deeply uncomfortable without explaining everything. Patient filmmaking that trusts the audience.

But Deliberately vague and slow. If you need clarity and pace, this will frustrate you.

The Wailing2016

A mystery that refuses easy answers, set in a closed community where everyone seems dangerous. Masterful at sustaining uncertainty and moral ambiguity for nearly three hours.

But It's a South Korean film of nearly three hours with no resolution that satisfies everyone. That's either a feature or a bug depending on your temperament.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Last Great Wilderness

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Requiem for a Dream2000

Both charts how isolation—physical or psychological—corrodes reality. Both feature protagonists driven by obsession into nightmarish situations with no safe exit.

A visually and sonically brutal descent into obsession and self-destruction across four parallel stories. Like The Last Great Wilderness, it understands how desire and compulsion isolate you from reality.

But Relentlessly grim, with an ending designed to leave you hollowed out. Darren Aronofsky makes beauty from despair, which some find brilliant and others find sadistic.

Funny Games1997

A hostage thriller that plays with genre conventions and audience expectations, trapping people in a house with malevolent visitors. Incredibly tense and smart.

But Deliberately unpleasant and meta in ways that can feel like the film is punishing you for watching it. Not designed to be fun.

Eden Lake2008

British thriller where isolation and class tension simmer into violence. Grounded and nasty, with no supernatural escape hatch—just people and consequences.

But Brutally bleak and nihilistic. Some scenes are genuinely cruel, and the ending offers no catharsis or comfort.

A Dark Song2016

Confined, weird, and hypnotic—two people in a house performing an arcane ritual over weeks. Oddly moving beneath the strangeness.

But Demands patience and works at its own meditative pace. If you want plot momentum, you'll find it maddeningly slow.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Unsettling psychological thriller with an ordinary family and an uncanny intruder. Builds tension through tone and implication rather than action.

But Deliberately artificial performances and pacing. Some find it pretentious; others find it hypnotic. No middle ground.

Them2006

French home-invasion thriller of relentless intensity. A couple alone in a house hunted by mysterious strangers. About twenty minutes of nearly unbearable suspense.

But The final revelation is divisive—some see it as a gut punch, others as a betrayal of what came before.

The Vanishing1988

Dutch thriller about obsession and mystery. A man becomes consumed searching for his vanished girlfriend. Unsettling and psychologically complex.

But It's a slow-burn character study, not a rescue narrative. Some scenes are genuinely disturbing in ways that linger uncomfortably.

The Wicker Man1973

Both trap outsiders with a closed community in a remote Scottish landscape. Both suggest that the real threat comes from belonging to something, not from individual evil.

A policeman arrives at an isolated Scottish island to investigate a missing girl, only to discover the community is not what it seems. Genuinely eerie, oddly funny, and completely unique.

But The 1973 version is genuinely strange in ways that won't click for everyone. The pacing is odd and some scenes feel more like folk horror than thriller.

Come and See1985

Both use alienation and confusion as primary tools. Both feature ordinary people dropped into hellish circumstances they don't understand and can't control. Both refuse to let you distance yourself from the horror.

A Soviet war film of devastating power about a boy conscripted into the Red Army. Nightmarish and visceral, it doesn't explain itself—it just shows.

But Extremely graphic depiction of atrocity and suffering. One of the most punishing films ever made. The closing image is designed to destroy you.