Wrong Turn

I rented 'Wrong Turn 1 & 2' a couple of nights ago as I am a huge fan of horror films, and I thought that it wouldn't hurt to watch this even though I didn't know anything about the films. Well, I am glad I watched it as it was better than I thought it would be.

Chris Finn (Desmond Harrington) is on his way to a job interview and is driving through the mountains of West Virginia. There is then a chemical spill on the road, so being short on time, he decides to take a different route, an abandoned dirt road in the middle of nowhere. He then by accident crashes into a car sitting in the middle of the road. He then meets a group of five friends on a hiking trip who include Jessie (Eliza Dushku) whom are stranded on the road. Two people stay at the car, and another group goes for help, only to find a sinister cabin nestled in the West Virgina woods, that is home to a trio of cannibalistic mountain men horribly disfigured from years of in-breeding. They then make a mad dash for their lives through out the woods, only hoping to make it out alive. But, will the trio let them leave their hunting grounds?

This is one of those films which are as cliché as you can get and the plot is predictable all the way through. But still, I did like 'Wrong Turn'. It had more than just the classic kids get lost in the woods and get killed. There was a little spark to it and I loved the fact that the killers were deformed mutated humans who were more closer to real monsters, than the more routine big bad guys. One thing I hated is the fact that the actors are so beautiful and glossed over even when they come out of burning towers, running through the wild and their throats are parched without water. But, I liked it & some of you who may not have seen too many horror movies like me may like it.

7/10

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.

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.

I probably hadn't seen this movie since it first came out over 20 years ago. It's a rainy summer Sunday evening and I could not think of a better movie to follow-up the classic National Lampoon's Vacation!

Wrong Turn is your standard backwoods, hillbilly, cannibal slasher that has been done several times over. The movie really doesn't add anything new, but it does provide some good kills, some good gore, and just good times! It's a fun ride with some suspensful moments that leave you as the viewer wondering what exactly you would do in situations such as this.

The bottom line is that if you are a fan of this sub-genre of horror, or if you have never seen it before, give Wrong Turn a shot, I don't think that you will be disappointed.