Détour mortel

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

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.

Wrong Turn tells the story of Chris Flynn (Desmond Harrington), a doctor who gets stranded in the middle of nowhere after being late for an important meeting. In hopes of getting to his final destination in time, Chris takes a back road through the woods of West Virginia to avoid the traffic jam and accidentally crashes into a car which belongs to a group of friends led by the somewhat bitchy heroine, Jessie Burlingame (Eliza Dushku). Having two wrecked cars, the group decides to wander through the woods in hopes of getting help, unaware that they are about to get stalked and killed off one-by-one by a group of hideously deformed inbred family who has been living and feeding with human flesh in that area for more than 30 years.

Having seen the film countless times before, I was always strangely fascinated by it, but I never truly understood why. I did always love it, but there was always something about it I just really dug. Having seen the film again now, I've finally realized what, and the reason is very simple - the film is just a very well-done homage to all those bad-ass 70s Horror films, and just combines the highlights of those flicks in one simple and highly-enjoyable Slasher film.

Another reason why I probably like this movie so much is because of its fantastic and unique eerie atmosphere. Throughout the whole movie you repeatedly get that uncomfortable feeling of being watched by someone, and the scares which constantly appear through the movie just add to the atmosphere. The tension and the special effects are very well done too thanks to Stan Winston who creates a really disgusting and menacing inbred family, but he does it so good you don't even look at them in that way; sure they are scary as hell and look horribly deformed, but beneath that all you still do realize they are all just a bunch of humans, well at least sort of.

The cast is really good too. The two leads, Desmond Harrington and the lovely and talented Eliza Dushku, do an amazing job here and since they both play likable, strong characters, you really root for them and want to see them live. The other cast members, Jeremy Sisto, Lindy Booth and Kevin Zegers, are all great actors, but they don't have really much to work with here since their characters are basically wasted, though Emanuelle Chriqui really stands out and plays the supporting female lead role very good and convincing. Even though you already know from the start who is going to survive, there's still plenty of tension and scares present throughout the whole movie, so if you think this is just another typical, gory Slasher flick - think again.

One thing I'm very impressed with here is the directing. Schmidt does a terrific job, and you can say he's a horror geek by just watching several clips from the movie. We get some "Deliverance" references now and then, a little bit of "Last House on the Left", "The Hills Have Eyes", "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre", and loads more. The kills are very effective and absolutely gory too, so if you are a fan of brutal death scenes, you will almost definitely dig the deaths.

The film does have some weak points though. Some of the dialog is a bit cheesy in parts, and the ending is really predictable, clichéd, and a bit rushed if you ask me, but the film still really impressed me and is definitely one of my favorite movies now.

So in short - Wrong Turn is a movie you either love or hate. I definitely belong to the first group for a couple of reasons, and even though I do realize Wrong Turn is not the best film ever, I love every second of it for one simple reason - it's a simple, highly enjoyable and scary no-brain throwback to 70s Horror movies, so if you're just looking for a fun and gory Horror film, Wrong Turn is then definitely a right turn, and an amazing film you should definitely not miss! Highly recommended.

8/10

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.

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.