Upon watching the first Wrong Turn back in 2003 it became an instant all time favorite of mine. Part two I found to be entertaining enough, but lacking compared to the first. The third one I was sad to admit that I didn't really like.
So, it was with mixed expectations that I turned on Wrong Turn 4.
My first point of critique is that it has a really slow start. This was something I also hated about Wrong Turn 3, because we're almost 50 minutes into the film before the action finally begins. Up until that point, it's all just cliché after cliché, some "BOOH!" chocks here and there, but no real action. It got kinda repetitive and boring. But then, out of nowhere, the action really picks up, and it doesn't let go until the movie's over.
This is were the good stuff begins. Wrong Turn 4 sure does take its sweet time to get going, but once it does, there are thrills to be found in it that can be compared to those in Wrong Turn 1. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that there are at least two scenes in Wrong Turn 4 that had me thrilled as much as Wrong Turn 1. Which is a huge plus. To that end, I definitely found this one the most adrenaline pumping since Wrong Turn 1; way more than part 2 and 3.
Okay, so the action (once it begins) is definitely good. How is the acting? It's what you would expect from this kind of budget horror. It's not award winning, but it actually does a decent enough job.
The gore is also a huge step up from Wrong Turn 3. While some of it had the same fake CGI look to it of the third one, a lot of it was on par with that of Wrong Turn 1 & 2. There's a lot of non-CGI blood and gore to be found in this one, and most of it looks good. It's good enough to keep your focus away from the less-impressive parts of the gore. Overall, I was satisfied with the gore, as well as the kills that brought it.
One more thing I really liked was that Wrong Turn 4 seemed to take a more "humane" approach to the hillbillies. There is one scene where the victims actually gains the upper hand and has the three hillbillies running for it. I really liked that, because it made them seem less invincible, and this in part made it even more interesting than the first Wrong Turn movie. All in all, the struggles between the hillbillies and the human victims was a lot more balanced in any of the three previous movies.
However, my biggest point of critique has got to be the makeup on the hillbillies. It is without a doubt, by far, the lousiest of all the movies. In every single scene where we see the mutants, especially Three Finger and One-Eye, it is so horribly obvious that they're wearing masks. You can literally SEE the distinction between the masks and the actors behind them, especially around the eyes. I always thought the Wrong Turn movies had really good makeup artistry on these hillbillies, but this is simply unacceptably and horribly made. It looks like an intern made it, and that isn't even fair to an intern to say, because any FX artist could've done it better. To put it short: the masks of the mutants are really, really horrible; so horrible that this is a 6 instead of a 7.
Overall, I was actually pretty positively surprised with part 4 of the Wrong Turns. If you, as I, loved the first one but didn't care for the third one - then I think you would like part 4, because they share a lot of elements. A lot more than I would've hoped for.
It's funny, a while back I was talking to my girlfriend about watching Wrong Turn 4, and I said to her: "Man, I wish they take it more in the direction of Wrong Turn 1, but I doubt it, because part 2 and 3 just got farther and farther away from the style of part 1."
But I guess they heard my prayers.
