Détour mortel

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.

Wrong Turn is about a group of 6 people (in two different cars) make a wrong turn (hence, the movie title) in the back woods of West Virginia. One car runs over some barbed wire which leaves them stranded in the middle of the road, when another car crashes into it due to not paying attention. They are in the middle of a forest where cell phones get no reception and not a gas station or any other convenience for miles and miles. Most of the group decide to walk back the way they came in hopes of finding help while a couple stay behind with the vehicles. This is where the mountain men begin their murder spree. They obviously began well before the movie started but for these 6 people, this is where it starts. It is also probably the most graphic and creepy part of the movie.

The special effects on the mountain men were great. They remind me of someone but I can not put my finger on it. They were creepy enough in the way they walked and grunted that they were not too much of a joke. I would probably run from these people if I was alone in the woods. Much better than the Boogeyman from Boogeyman, anyways. Some characteristics remind me of the main monster in Monster Man, though.

I thought the cast for this movie was great. I have always been a big fan of Eliza Dushku and the other two girls, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Lindy Booth, were no slouches themselves. In fact, if there were 3 girls to be stranded somewhere with, I would have no problem if it were these 3. You could certainly do a lot worse.

The only guy in the movie that annoyed me was thankfully knocked off first. It was like they were reading my mind. Jeremy Sisto and Desmond Harrington were pretty likable and did a good job overall. The acting in this movie was pretty good, especially considering it was a horror movie.

The movie borrowed a little bit from a lot of different movies, most notably Deliverance, which one of the characters even mentions by name, but in todays day and age, when we have seen it all, it was a pretty good effort. 8/10

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.

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.

Rating: ** out of ****

Wrong Turn seemingly has all the ingredients necessary for an effective slasher: a good setting and decent premise, a very attractive and likable cast, memorable make-up and gore effect, and a refreshingly unironic tone that reminds us of the days when old-fashioned horror didn't rely on self-conscious humor to pass for entertainment value. In that manner, Wrong Turn is actually a little nostalgic, not unlike the rest of the recent batch of backwoods horror flicks (Cabin Fever, House of 1000 Corpses, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake).

But aside from two solid setpieces, the movie rarely fulfills its (admittedly limited) potential. The script matters little in this subgenre, but there's almost no plot after the ill-fated teens arrive at the mountain men's cabin. This is about twenty-five minutes into the film, after we've already dispensed with the obligatory character intros (basically: 3 hot chicks and 3 hunky, but also surprisingly personable guys) and whatever reasons they have for being stranded in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia.

Everything after that is typical cat-and-mouse filler, the killers (three inbred, cannibalistic hillbillies) searching for their prey while our protagonists run and hide behind trees. There's very little in the way of suspense, namely because it's so obvious who's going to live and who's going to die and in what order. And because the cast is so small, you can't even enjoy a particularly large body count (half the main cast is killed off less than forty minutes into the picture).

Wrong Turn is also missing much of what makes slasher movies fun to watch: explicit nudity and the occasional bit of gratuitous sex. With such an attractive cast (Emmanuelle Chriqui is cute, and Eliza Dushku and especially Lindy Booth are total hotties), the movie regrettably skimps on the goods. Such a complaint probably wouldn't matter if the characters were better developed, but despite a talented cast, the most interesting aspect character-wise is noting how different a couple Lindy Booth and Kevin Zegers played in Dawn of the Dead.

As for the rest of the cast, Desmond Harrington is a solid actor, but does little more than run, grunt, and dive headfirst into every dangerous stunt (his volunteering for every dangerous move actually makes him pretty likable even when we question his logic). Eliza Dushku simply coasts on her looks (and proves that all hottie TV actresses are destined to play a big screen scream queen at least once in their lives), while Emmanuelle Chriqui just shrieks her way through her part. Standing out a little is Jeremy Sisto, who infuses a bit of humor into an otherwise very disposable role.

The forest is something of a disappointment, as well. With a potentially excellent setting at his disposal, director Rob Schmidt fails to generate any creepy atmosphere in an environment where you'd think atmosphere would almost come naturally (to be fair, a lot of horror movies also seem to have this problem; the last time I saw a forest setting utilized perfectly was in 2003's terrifically frightening Dead End).

Despite the fact I've done little more than harp on the film, there's no denying that the middle half-hour is occasionally entertaining. There's a semi-suspenseful scene set in a vehicular junkyard (finally, a little variety in setting, huh?) and another effective sequence set inside a watchtower that segues to an exciting chase atop the branches of some very large trees. The murders are too sparse, given the small cast, but they're gruesome and memorable, and thankfully not as relentlessly cruel as the deaths in Cabin Fever, but boast just the right touch of menace and hard-edged violence.

The three hillbilly killers aren't quite as successful as the gore; in fact, seeing less of them would have been appreciated, considering their grotesque appearance almost crosses into the realm of self-parody. Even The X-Files knew better than that.

Anyway, whatever momentum the middle half-hour built up comes crashing down in the final minutes, with the film actually closing out with an explosion, surely a sign of desperation on the part of the screenwriter if he can't come up with any brighter ideas in a slasher (I was, in fact, about to give the movie a ** 1/2 until the climax). Overall, this is mildly recommended to slasher fans or anyone who wants to gawk at Dushku for a little over an hour. Wrong Turn at least has its heart set in the right place, which is more than can be said for most slashers these days.