Paramount Sets Horror Pic “Wilderness Reform” with “Heart Eyes” Director Josh Ruben
Don’t be deceived by this forthcoming pic’s title, which would seem to promise an uplifting tale of environmentalism’s successes. “Wilderness Reform” will belong to the horror genre, which has a long history of using untamed regions to bring out the agoraphobia buried within us all. This Paramount film will carry on the venerable tradition of “The Blair Witch Project,” “The Descent,” and “The Ritual,” to name a few, and it’ll have one of the genre’s newly up-and-coming directors at the helm.
“Friday the 13th” Meets “Lord of the Flies”?
“Wilderness Reform,” which will be an adaptation of a 2024 novel by the Query brothers, Harrison and Matt, belongs in the well-known subgenre that might be termed camp horror: the subgenre that includes “Sleepaway Camp,” “They/Them,” and, most prominently, the “Friday the 13th” franchise. These films are all slasher flicks that make use of a summer camp as the setting for an ensuing massacre of mostly teenage victims.
Many of these movies also happen to be very campy in tone, but “Wilderness Reform” doesn’t appear to belong in this camp. Its logline (per Deadline) describes it as taking place in “a wilderness camp for troubled teens that is plagued by mysterious events and disappearances, taking survival and discipline to a frightening extreme.”
Naturally, one wonders what is the cause of such sinister happenings, but the mention of “discipline” suggests an even more intriguing exploration of how these events will affect group dynamics among the story’s heroes. Who will turn against whom? Which characters will be brought closer together by their shared peril? Whose minds will crack under such abject stress and terror? There’s a distinct and ghastly possibility that this wilderness-based crisis will reduce many of these teens’ moral mentalities to a Darwinian level.
“Heart Eyes” Director to Helm “Wilderness Reform”
The director of “Wilderness Reform,” Josh Ruben, made a splash this past February with another horror film about relationships. Specifically, “Heart Eyes,” which belongs to the even smaller niche of Valentine’s Day horror (which also includes the 1981 slasher “My Bloody Valentine,” its 2009 remake, and 2020’s “Cupid,” a film by then-future Poohniverse director Scott Chambers that reimagines the titular angel as a vengeful murderer of teens), concerns a serial killer who targets romantic couples. This film was widely praised for its deftness in blending the seldom-compatible tones of a rom-com and a slasher flick.
Ruben has three previous directorial credits to his name: 2020’s “Scare Me,” a horror comedy in which he himself portrays a struggling writer who gets into an ugly conflict with an established horror novelist; 2021’s “Werewolves Within,” which wrings scares and laughs out of a lycanthrope-themed whodunit; and “Death to 2021” (co-directed with Jack Clough), a made-for-TV mockumentary from that year centered around the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Wilderness Reform” will be written by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, the same writing team responsible for M. Night Shyamalan’s 2023 apocalyptic horror film “Knock at the Cabin,” which was also adapted from a novel.
Final Thoughts
Naturally, no actors or release dates have yet been announced (nor even chosen, most likely) in connection with “Wilderness Reform.” Nonetheless, this project already has a veritable A-team attached to it. If the track records of those behind the camera are anything to go by, it’s shaping up to be a worthy adaptation and a superior work of wilderness horror.
