Wrong Way

This early 70's movie is sometimes compared to "Last House on the Left" (made the same year) because it is also about two young girls who run afoul of a group of vicious hippie criminals after their truck breaks down on a rural country road. One of the girls has concerned parents as in "Last House", and the local police mount a slow and generally ineffective search for them (although in "Last House" the police are SUPPOSED to be inept,comic buffoons--I'm not so sure here). But "Last House on the Left", as low-budget as it was, has things like character development and an actual plot, including a revenge sequence at the end modeled on Ingemar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring". I doubt the people who made this thing had ever even HEARD of Ingemar Bergman.

It would be easy to brand this movie as misogynist since it has several LONG--and, in one case, completely gratuitous--rape scenes where the women are stripped bare and forced to service multiple male partners. But it might be giving this movie too much credit to assume it has any kind of anti-feminist or anti-female agenda. The only agenda here is obviously to turn on viewers who are into rough, "non-consensual" sex. That would certainly include actual rapists, but it would also include people who might be into rough play-acting and even some women who might indulge in rape fantasies now and then. Because where "Last House" is a realistically violent film and is often genuinely disturbing, this film is just ridiculous and completely impossible to take seriously on any level.

There are a couple points of interest though. One of the actresses playing the two protagonists MIGHT be the later 70's porn star Rene Bond. She looks a little different with long blonde hair instead of short brown hair and--if it IS her--she still has her original breasts. (But whether she is Rene Bond or not, her name is probably not "Laurel Canyon" or "Candy Sweet" as the two actresses are listed in the credits). There's also an interesting sequence when the girls are let go by their first group of attackers and they stumble across a Manson Family-like group who are burying a dead body while an actual toddler wanders around! The leader of the group stands out as a hammy dinner-theater actor in an entire cast of complete NON-actors. He alternately threatens to make the girls serve as babysitters and sex slaves, but then before anything happens, the movie cuts away to a completely irrelevant scene with some peripheral characters quasi-raping another drugged out girl in a motel room. The denouement with the original protagonists is delivered after that, entirely in a voice-over by the police as the filmmakers either ran out of money or were simply not interested in any aspects of the "plot" that DIDN'T involve some kind of sexual violation. This movie is obviously nothing but pure, unadulterated exploitation.

As far as I am aware, I Spit On Your Grave holds the ignominious record for the longest rape scene ever committed to celluloid, but Wrong Way doesn't exactly hold back either: the film's two young victims, Nancy and Cathy, are passed between several lank-haired, drug-crazed drop-outs for so long that I was amazed they were able to walk away afterwards. It's such a ridiculously drawn-out scene that it ultimately loses the power to shock.

Left in the middle of nowhere, their clothes tattered and torn, Cathy and Nancy proceed to wander aimlessly through the countryside, eventually seeking help from a group of hippies, unaware that these potential saviours are in fact a murderous Manson-like cult who are in the process of burying a body. The hippies take the girls hostage and abuse them further. Meanwhile, the local police comb the area for the missing teenagers.

The film then abruptly turns its attention to a totally unconnected pair of villains holed up in a cabin who have a hostage of their own, a pretty woman who they've got drugged up on heroin. After forcing her to have sex, they bind and gag her and shove her in the trunk of their car. Before they can drive away, the police arrive on the scene and a shootout occurs. The film then wraps things up in a matter of seconds by showing the killer hippies being arrested/shot and Cathy and Nancy being freed.

Needless to say, Wrong Way is pure exploitation: the film's tasteless content, grainy photography, reprehensible villains, and no-frills direction positively screams grindhouse, while it's gritty low budget aesthetic and unflinching scenes of degradation have seen it compared to Last House On The Left. But whereas I Spit On Your Grave and Last House justified the graphic depiction of sexual violence with a healthy dose of brutal revenge, Wrong Way does nothing of the sort, making it seem even more exploitative as a result. This is z-grade trash that simply revels in abuse; it has all the technical competence of a roughie, but with none of the hard-core content (there is, however, full frontal nudity from both sexes, and lots of shots of male butts, one of which is a worrying shade of green!).

5/10. Utterly deplorable and completely amateurish misogynistic nonsense, so inept and outrageous that fans of all things exploitation will simply have to see it to believe it.

Hard to get sleazefest that was only available on VHS in the UK before their was any censorship. And it shows because it had a lot of nudity, male and female. But don't think it's attractive because the rape scene's are a bore.

It involved all one-time actors and one-time director and it's easy to spot because the acting is really wooden and some scene's do take to long. Bad editing and strange score give it an exploitation feeling. Not only that, it looks like it was somehow based on Last House On The Left (1972) another rape/revenge flick.

As I said it do involve a lot of nudity but nothing is attractive. It's full bush era back then and you know how they looked, with their white asses and tits. The males also walk around full frontal and it's quit a shock because they are all fat or have bellies.

Two girls are being kidnapped and abused. The father of one of the girls is afraid something happened and the police starts an investigation. Once the rape is done, this flick really becomes slow and boring. You wander how it got made. Even the rape scene's must have been a one taker. They looked like they had a drink or so because some of the boys are laughing all the time. Guess they had fun rubbing their cocks against the girls. And the girl towards the end giving head and being taken from behind at the same time is almost laughable. And didn't they forgot to add the revenge?

But again, it's sought after because it's some kind of sleaze classic although I have seen better. Unavailable and a rare catch.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 2,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

Usually, I love this sort of film...but Wrong Way just doesn't cut it. The influence from Wes Craven's classic The Last House on the Left is clear and obvious throughout, but the film doesn't do anything new with it and overall is really rather boring. The Last House on the Left inspired a number of rape and revenge films; the majority of which hailed from Italy and are rather good if you're into this sort of stuff. That's what makes Wrong Way all the more disappointing; it's not a bad thing to rip off Craven's film, but when all you've got is a series of sex scenes, you know that it hasn't been done well. The plot is virtually non-existent, and simply focuses on a couple of girls that end up being raped and abused by a few bored hippies. The film is notorious for its rape scenes that go on seemingly forever, but it gets old fast. I have no problem with sex in movies, and in fact actively seek out this sort of dirty, grisly film...but there really is no reason to bother seeking out Wrong Way. It's currently unavailable in Britain, and that certainly isn't a bad thing.

this is a very rare film released twice in the uk on video before the bbfc known as wrong way on the interocean video label and the hitch hiker on the rarer tiger video label its a lost drive in classic the rape scenes of the two woman must rate as the longest in any film i have seen theres even a strange cult sect included catchy hippy music this is up there with texas chain saw massacre and last house on the left as my favourite seventys drive in classics cannot see this ever getting another release over here now with the bbfc.