WRONG TURN (2003) Review

WRONG TURN (2003)

Starring: (L to R) Eliza Dushku, Desmond Harrington, Emmanuell Chriqui, and Jeremy Sisto
Directed By: Rob Schmidt
Special makeup effects by: Stan Winston (Jurassic Park)
Review written by: Joshua Taj Bozeman on June 10, 2003 (movie seen on June 9, 2003 at 11 AM)

WARNING!!!!! Spoilers below! If you haven't seen the film, and don't want any of it ruined, stop reading now!

spolier space

The movie starts out with horror...it ends with horror. Bloody, messy horror that brings back the days of 80's horror movies. Wrong Turn is a great horror movie with some weak points, but it's quite entertaining.

We start out with a young couple mountain climbing (more like rock climbing, I guess.) The girl is a bit behind the guy...he makes it to the top, and she starts slipping on the rocks. She screams, and he comes over to tell her to hurry up and make sure she's okay. She starts getting up there, and she hears (can't see the guy anymore) the guy get hit and some weird noises above. His hand shoots out over the rocks...his face coming into view, but we can't tell what's wrong. Blood starts to drip down on the girl's face, and the guy's body is very quickly and very LOUDLY dragged away from the edge, out of vision. His body then flies over the rock, hitting the ground with (another loud) thud. The girl is soon disposed off after this. Some crazy laughs accompanying the departure of the "bad guys." I was in the theatre by myself, and it was the auditorium in the VERY back away from the main part of the building...it was 11 AM, but I'll admit, I was uneasy. The main thing that worked well was the very, VERY loud soundtrack...the body being pulled away, the thud of the man hitting the ground, the screams, and the groans from the "killer(s)" above. I was alone in the place (as I mentioned), but I found myself making sure no one else was coming in...afraid they would startle me (or even full on scare me!) I also had my legs off the ground, just in case the crazy killer guys wanted to reach from the seat in front of me and drag ME away.

A quick note about the story/script- I looked and this film was written by the guy who wrote Halloween 4, which is one of the best Halloween sequels after part 2. He hasn't done a lot of other horror movies, from looking at www.imdb.com, but both movies *Wrong Turn and Halloween 4* are very well written, suspense filled, thrillers. Wrong Turn is definitely first rate horror in my book...and it didn't have the annoying teeny bopper thing that many new horror movies have. No annoying characters that appeal to the younger audience (Emmanuell's whining WAS sort of annoying), which is also a plus.

After the first scene with the climbers, the credits roll over a bunch of images of macabre- a dead body, pictures of newspaper clippings talking about the many missing people in West Virgina, and pictures of "inbreds" that live in the forested area of the state. Great music during the credits...really goes a long way to set the mood, and the colors used during this time are nice too. Really sets a dark, scary mood for what turns out to be a thrill packed hour and a half.

Now, we meet, handsome Chris- on his way to Raleigh for an interview. He's running late, and when he runs into a traffic jam on the highway, he decides to detour and find another route. He makes his way to a rundown gas station, complete with the unkempt attendant who happens to be missing most of his teeth, and speaks in a heavy "hick" accent. He doesn't have a phone...Chris tries to use his cell phone, but he's out of range or something? I'm not totally sure what the deal with his phone was. He needs to call and tell them he'll be late for his interview. He looks at a map on the side of the gas station, and he sees a dotted road.. He decides to take it, since it seems to follow the highway...he thanks the attendant and tells him to take care. As he drives off in his new car (a mustang, I think), the gas station guy sits in his chair and tells him he's the one who's going to need to take care.

Chris is driving (way too fast) down the dirt road he found on the map, and he soon runs into another car...basically destroying the front half of his own vehicle. He apologizes to the group (including Sisto and Dushku, Chriqui, and another guy and girl I've never seen before.) He asks what happened to their truck and why it's in the middle of the road, and they tell him that someone had barbed wire over the road, and it totally destoryed their tires. They decide to go look for a phone or help, the two unknown actors staying behind to smoke weed (they said it not me.) It's obvious that horror is right around the corner, and that the two unknowns will be the first to die.

I guess I should leave off with the plot here...just wanted to give everyone a decent taste of how it all starts out and what it's all about. Plus, I don't want to ruin too much more of the film.

Wrong turn is very well directed...lots of great camera angles/moves that help keep the dark mood throughout the entire film. The colors are really nice (lots of dark nighttime scenes along with daytime scenes of the beautiful forest areas that make a great contrast with the horror of the killers' house which is run down and surrounded by burnt out vehicles...inside are tons of belongings taken from the vehicles AND some human body parts. Along with nearly complete dead bodies! I like how they would go from scenes of gruesome horror to wonderful ariel shots of the area the movie takes place in.

The characters are all well drawn out. Sisto and Chriqui are a newly engaged couple, and their conversations in the beginning of the movie about what kind of wedding Sisto wants are sweet. As mentioned, Chriqui's character is whiny, and it gets a bit annoying, but it's not too unbearable. Sisto's character and the guy who plays Chris (who is pretty much the main character) do some great things to save the lives of everyone in the group, which is nice...and the girls kick some butt too. Well, Dushku kicks some butt alone, I guess. The killers (the inbred mountain men with a taste for human flesh) are very well done. I kept thinking it was on the verge of cheesy, but I think it was well done. Stan Winston did the makeup effects for these guys, and they looked great. Very scary looking- especially the small guy who kept laughing (I think his evil laugh might have been what made him scarier than the others.) Of course, the newly dumped Dushku (they explain they took the camping trip they were on their way to when their tires were blown because her boyfriend dumped her and they wanted to cheer her up) and Chris find comfort in each other...being the two without a better half. It's that whole horror cliche when someone ends up falling for someone due to the terrible things they experience together. They don't fall in love tho, which is always nice...the cliche was cut off before it fully developed.

The story for Wrong Turn is pretty simple...bad guys are after the group of kids, and they need to get away and save their lives...it's simple, but it works very well in a lot of horror movies- this one being no exception. The great directing, the above par acting, and the makeup effects make it all wonderful to watch. Also, as I said, this movie is gruesome..something a lot of horror movies today shy away from, but there are some gross scenes in this film. For many horror fans, this is a definite plus. Count me in on that group. Nothing like seeing a body on a table, one leg missing, just a bunch of mangled flesh hanging from the torso!

Many have talked about the similarities to this film and Texas Chainsaw Massacre...which makes sense. A family of deranged canibals trying to capture a group of young people. This film is far better then TCM in my opinion...so you can't complain that this is a "rip- off," because it's far from it. It's not the most original idea in horror...but then again, the best horror movies are usually pretty simplistic in their approach to the story.

If you're a horror fan or a fan of Sisto or Dushku, I highly recommend this film. I've liked Sisto ever since I saw him in Suicide Kings, and he's fun to watch here...Dushku is just plain sexy in my opinion, so she's very very fun to watch. Great movie all around...it's in theatres now, so try to see it there for the great (LOUD) sound...Horror movies are back with Wrong Turn, and hopefully there's more to come.