Camino hacia el terror

I went into the screener of WRONG TURN not expecting much. After the film was over, I was pleasantly surprised. The plot has been recycled a few times, but this version of the "kids stranded in the woods" scenario has some good points. We have seen this before in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and more recently in X-Files Episode "Home". A group of young adults are stranded deep in the woods of West Virginia, and are hunted by a "family of cannibalistic freaks. Wrong Turn is very predictable, and the gore is abundant, but the film is delivered in an in-your-face style, which kept me interested. The acting is on par with most slasher flicks, which is good enough to get the point across. All in all, it was a good waste of a boring thursday evening.

I do want to spoil much, but the tree top chase is very well done. Any fan of the genre might be surprised by Wrong Turn...I was.

I usually don't find horror movies to be very scary. I've seen enough of them to know pretty much what's going to happen and when it will happen. They're generally so predictable that they just fail to illicit any kind of emotional response in me whatsoever. "Wrong Turn" is an exception, however. It's one of the rare horror movies that was actually as scary and disturbing to me as it was meant to be.

The plot, which involves six attractive young people being hunted by a family of cannibalistic mountain men, is very straightforward and offers no real surprises to fans of horror movies. As is the case in most of these movies, however, the plot quickly becomes besides the point, and the movie becomes more concerned with trying to frighten and disturb the viewer.

Needless to say, it succeeds. The mountain men prove to be some of the scariest movie killers that I've seen in a long time, probably because the film wastes no time in showing us exactly what they plan to do with their victims (we see this about a half-hour into the movie in a scene that is guaranteed to make at least half of the people who watch it really, really sick). They also manage to be more relentless and even more beyond reason than most horror movie killers; they behave more like wild animals than people.

The acting is considerably better than most movies in this genre. Granted, that's not saying much, but I actually felt more than a little sympathy for the two main characters (Eliza Dushku and the Ray Liotta-looking med student). They behave just like anyone else would in that situation, and they're likable enough and believable enough to make us root for them. I didn't find myself feeling much sympathy for the rest of the cast (they often act like typical slasher movie fodder, especially the two kids who get high and have sex shortly before being murdered), but they're at least more believable than the characters who usually appear in these movies.

Overall, I would have to say that this movie was better than most of the horror movies that have come out lately. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but any fan of horror movies should definitely check it out.

I used to disdain Wrong Turn as a hollow derivative of The Hills Have Eyes and for some time actually preferred the sequel, until checking it out again recently and rather changing my tune. It is still derivative of The Hills Have Eyes to an extent, Wrong Turn being among the earliest of the newer rash of inbred cannibal against resourceful prey films and The Hills Have Eyes being if not the earliest then certainly the first definitive entry in the genre. But the two differ crucially, the earlier film comes from a critical eye, a director who has watched society and sentenced it, while Wrong Turn is simply a fun horror film. And its a whole lot of fun, with some rather wonderful traits that do not seem to often appear among later films in the genre or even mainstream horror in general. The key to it all comes in the very first scene as scaling a rock face becomes a terse nightmare for a couple of cannon fodder youths. The girl falls enough to incur broken ribs and likely unconsciousness, maybe even broken legs and back but still manages to get up and keep moving. The entertaining fusion of tension and silliness seen here informs the rest of the film and it really works, especially since things never aim for truly gruelling nastiness, just engagement and fear. Thus the car crash that brings the protagonists together yields less angry recrimination than instead cooperation and good vibes and in the films barmiest moment characters perform feats similar to that which nearly killed Jackie Chan on Armour of God, one of them even with a gunshot wound to the leg. And the inbred villains of the piece can wield a bow and arrow like Robin Hood, as well as climbing trees like the most fearless of gymnasts. Its all thoroughly silly but great fun at the same time, and it never really jars with the more frightening moments (there's one real winner of a suspense sequence here), unlike say The Hills Have Eyes '06 with its ill fitted marriage of brutality and cheesy action. The gore here is almost well judged as the silliness, there isn't a whole lot of grue but whats there is mostly short, sharp and effectively savage without any appearance of trying to make the audience sick with realism. A smidgen more would definitely have been beneficial though, particularly when the villains are buying the farm. Acting is generally reasonable, a stone faced Desmond Harrington bears little charisma, but Emmanuelle Chriqui emotes to good effect, Kevin Zegers and Lindy Booth make for amusing stoners and in the best written part Jeremy Sisto has chilled out but ultimately heroic ball. And Eliza Dushku delivers mondo hotness which is a big plus. The handiest thing about the characters though is that they are all written sympathetic rather than obnoxious and self absorbed or resolutely vapid, there's a sense that the writer cares about them rather than just treating them as cannon fodder and it makes for a much more involving experience. I'm not sure I have any serious complaints about the whole film actually, it really rubbed me the right way. Actually I have one, it needed nudity. In a fun trashy horror film, nudity is virtually an essential and there ain't none here. Still righteous stuff though, strong 7/10 from me.

What's worse than a leather-faced madman chasing you through the bush with a chainsaw? How about three!!

`Wrong Turn' stars Desmond Harrington as Chris Finn, a man who is late for a very important interview. Finn takes a back country road to avoid a traffic jam and ends up involved in a car accident with three debutantes (Eliza Dushku, Lindy Booth and Emmanuelle Chriqui) and their boyfriends (Jeremy Sisto and Kevin Zegers). The group splits up as they try to find some help. Unbeknownst to them, they are being stalked by an unspeakable horror. Living in the woods around the crash is a family of cannibalistic mountain men who are overtly grotesque from generations of incest. Before the group knows it, they are in a fight for their very lives.

`Wrong Turn' was in one word an utter shock to the system. There hasn't been a film this gory, grotesque and chilling in a very long time. Not since the 1970's `Texas Chainsaw Massacre' has a horror film such as this been made. The best way to describe the experience is that if you took 2001's `Joy Ride' and `Jeepers Creepers' added 1972's `Deliverance' then threw them all in a blender. You may come up with `Wrong Turn'.

The tension in this film is harrowing and relentless as it bats you back and forth. You are exhausted and maybe even queasy when you come out of the theatre. But if you love horror films then you probably have an ear to ear grin as well.

I really liked some of the early editing of this film by director Rob Schmidt, who allows the scares and shocks to come with brilliant accuracy. I also liked how Schmidt barely shows the mountain men throughout the film. The parts we do see are horrific but the filmmaker relies heavily on the chase and shock than on the gore. Schmidt could have easily dived down the gore shoot to hell but he made a wise choice that works in spades.

It's the film's harrowing tension and atmospheric pursuit that overshadows the young stars that make up the cast. Dushku is strong and emulates some of her `Buffy the Vampire Slayer' character, Faith in her portrayal here. Dushku loves to play debutantes with edge and her character here has a lot of it. I wasn't extremely familiar with Desmond Harrington before this film but he plays a good leading man. The rest of the cast play typical generic 20-somethings from the horror film franchises of old. I have always liked Lindy Booth but she has nothing to play with here and the same is goes for Jeremy Sisto. But come on, this isn't exactly an intelligently written and detailed drama.

I liked `Wrong Turn' purely because of its shock value and its no holds barred return to classic horror. It is always in your face and it doesn't let go till the credits. This film isn't for the faint of heart. What a rush! (3.5 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.

It was entertaining and engaging as much as it was tired and expected. Acting and soundtrack were irritating in some parts of the movie. Very cheesy and cliche but will certainly appeal to many as an entertaining backwoods slasher.