Wrong Turn (2003)
Nothing spoils a country idyll like city folk.
Starring: Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, Lindy Booth, Julian Richings, Kevin Zegers, Garry Robbins, Ted Clark, Yvonne Gaudry, David Huband, Joel Harris, Wayne Robson
Director: Rob Schmidt
Running Time: 84 minutes
US MPAA rating: N/AUK BBFC rating: 18
Action, Horror
While Arabs and the French are, for obvious political reasons, current figures of hate in the US, in general the Hollywood of today tries hard to be kind to different ethnic groups, handling with care its representation of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and Eskimo - even the British only ever play lovable rogues (or butlers, or gay men) these days. However the one group that Hollywood can always be counted on to caricature, mock and generally disrespect is the good ol' redneck.
Take 'Wrong Turn', for example. Driving through West Virginia for an interview, medical student Chris Finn gets caught in a traffic jam. Despite a toothless warning from an old garage attendant, Chris decides to go way off the beaten track, along the heavily wooded 'Bear Mountain Road', where he quite literally runs into five other lost students, whose van has been put out of action by a barbed wire trap set in the road. Soon a family of mutant 'mountain men' is picking off those pesky kids one by one in order to put dinner on the table, leading Chris and the other survivors to confront the cannibals in one final battle.
At first 'Wrong Turn' sets itself up to be an effective old school horror film. With its handheld shots of the students through trees or from under cars, it conveys the eerie impression that they are being watched by some unseen presence (er, actually that would be us), and in a horror cliche resuscitated from the 1970s and 1980s, the pot-smokers and fornicators get to die first.
While there is nothing new here, it is all quite deftly handled. However, the 'mountain men' are fully revealed on screen far too early in the piece, so that the promising 'unknown killer' scenario quickly gives way to a fright-free rerun of 'Deliverance', with the imprudent students set against the local yokels. The latter, with their inbred grotesqueness, their lack of ordinary social graces and their inscrutable language of guttural grunts, are basically the royal family with beards - except that an axe-wielding Prince Philip might have proved scarier.
Normally Hollywood-style rednecks are motivated by brute racist hatred and/or sexual depravity. In 'Wrong Turn' they are merely hungry. Yet I suspect that these mountain men may have had an ulterior motive for all their chopping, garrotting and maiming. Nothing, you see, spoils a country idyll like city folk. So, faced with the annoying urban whininess of the seven students, the natives may just have wanted a little bit of peace again. And who can blame them? The sound of the students' screams is certainly far more satisfactory than their earlier irritating banter.
Indeed the director could learn a valuable lesson from his degenerate antagonists - sometimes it is better just to cut, cut, cut.
It's Got: Handy tips for home butchery
It Needs: A decent script, and a MUCH later appearance on screen by the mutant trio
Alternatives: Read Gary Panton's review of this movie, Deliverance, Southern Comfort, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Blair Witch Project (all much better)
Summary: Joining the queue for this turkey is probably a wrong turn - and you may well wish that you could join in the carving.
Review Date: 7th January 2003
External Links
Wrong Turn at the IMDB
Comments5 Comments |
| I completely disagree with the comments made here on this movie. The movie has a simple storyline, but is very frightening and effective. Who cares what the motives of a bunch of inbreed totally ****ed up and twisted sick monsters are ? somehow I have the feeling the writer of these comments is a redneck himself (whatever that is) and feels bad about the presentation of his kind ? anyhow, I reccomend this movie - it's a hell of a ride and thrilling. Forme it's much better then the classic deliverance which indeed has the same kind f story line and surroundings. a must see! |
| Comment by:- voom vermeer | | 21 June 2004 | ip: logged |
| Seen this film like a million times already. Can't Hollywood come up with original horror movies anymore? Yawn. |
| Comment by:- Maudy Tuseth | | 14 August 2004 | ip: logged |
| My favorite part was when the idiotic ex-fiance chick died. Everything else was worse than the Gathering. I hate how movies that are trite and lack explanation have been getting so much slack. Just because Kill Bill 1 pulled that off so well doesnt mean we need all the Yoko Onos of directing to rear their ugly heads. |
| Comment by:- Buddharama | | 25 September 2004 | ip: logged |
| this film was so crap i laughed more cant any1 make a scary film 4 once in this life |
| Comment by:- emma | | 18 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| This movie is junk, not original, not scary but merely annoying |
| Comment by:- Arne | | 30 December 2004 | ip: logged |
