Wrong Turn

WRONG TURN (18)

D: Rob Schmidt

20th Century Fox / Constantin / Summit / Regency / Newmarket (Stan Winston, Brian Gilbert, Erik Feig & Robert Kulzer)

Canada/Germany/US 🇨🇦🇩🇪🇺🇸 2003

84 mins

Horror

W: Alan B. McElroy

DP: John S. Bartley

Ed: Michael Ross

Mus: Elia Cmiral

Desmond Harrington (Chris Flynn), Eliza Dushku (Jessie), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Carly), Jeremy Sisto (Scott), Kevin Zegers (Evan), Lindy Booth (Francine)

Wrong Turn is a surprisingly decent horror film, if not a little derivative of some 1970’s films which done the same thing much better (Deliverance, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc).

A group of teenagers get stranded in the West Virginia woods after their vehicles collide and they are soon hunted by cannibalistic locals who reside nearby.

Thankfully, the film doesn’t use the usual horror tropes of dumb characters making poor decisions, and most of the choices the characters make seem to be the best course of action, if a little far-fetched.

The final act isn’t quite as tight as Eliza Dushku’s wardrobe choices, but I’m willing to give it a pass as the chills remain effective and tense throughout the brief 84 minute running time.

6/10

WRONG TURN (18)

D: Mike P. Nelson

Saban / Constantin / The H Collective / Tea Shop (James Harris & Robert Kulzer)

US 🇺🇸 2021

109 mins

Horror

W: Alan B. McElroy [based on his 2003 screenplay]

DP: Nick Junkersfeld

Ed: Tom Elkins

Mus: Stephen Lukach

Charlotte Vega (Jennifer Shaw), Adain Bradley (Darius Clemons), Bill Sage (Venable), Matthew Modine (Scott Shaw), Emma Dumont (Milla D’Angelo)

Intended as a reboot of the 2003 film and penned by the same screenwriter, the only commonalities shared between the two movies is that it involves teens lost in the woods with a looming threat, aside from that this has more in common with Southern Comfort or Midsommar rather than the original Wrong Turn movie.

The film opens with Matthew Modine in a small Virginian town on the outskirts of the Appalachian mountains, attempting to find his daughter who has recently gone missing. The mystery of her disappearance is then told in flashback, where her and her friends get lost during a hike and are subsequently apprehended by a tribe who live off the land there.

It’s your typical cabin in the woods stuff with a photogenic cast who always have to look attractive, even when they’re covered in blood, as they make a series of poor decisions as though they have no common sense whatsoever.

As a stand-alone horror movie, it isn’t terrible, but it should have been called something else (“The Foundation”, for example) rather than trying cash in on a horror movie from 18 years earlier which I felt was, by far, a more superior piece of filmmaking.

4/10