Wrong Turn 2021

I think it's safe to say that any horror film fan worth their salts has at least heard of the film franchise: Wrong Turn. The initial film debuted in 2003 and certainly fell into the unfortunate "slasher trap" that many horror films of that era were likely to. Five friends find themselves stranded in the woods and are hunted by a family of inbred psychopaths. The film for the most part was a laughable collage of gore and hero complexes that offered little to the imagination. It seemed more like a less shocking take on "The Hills Have Eyes" and delivered predictable deaths and lackluster climaxes. The film saw enough success to spawn a sequel that was as decently passable as its predecessor. However, the trap I spoke of before was activated when somehow FOUR more straight-to-DVD follow-up films were made. By the sixth and thankfully final installment, the film series had become completely reliant on the overuse of sexuality, weak damsel-like female roles, excessive but horrendously unconvincing gore, and cheap scares. Take a look at the "menacing" and "original" terrorizers of a six-film series:

Now don't take what I'm saying to be a burning hatred for these films. In fact, I love a good "bad" horror film. They can often be fun to watch and can provide more laughter than most modern-day comedy films. The Wrong Turn franchise has become something of a running joke with my circle of film friends and we occasionally will remark that we just can't wait for Wrong Turn 7 to come out.

Imagine my surprise when I see there's a trailer one night on YouTube. But this time, it's just "Wrong Turn" and in this era of reboots, I couldn't wait to watch the trailer. Mainly because I was excited that I would have a slew of new humorous content to discuss with my friends. I'm happy to say I was disappointed in that aspect. The trailer wasn't mindblowing, but it wasn't bad. In fact, it was kind of...interesting. I encourage you to go watch the trailer yourself so I won't break it down here, but suffice it to say that it certainly was showcasing the distance and changes between itself and its deformed and inbred past.

Now, moving ahead there will be some spoilers (obviously as it's a review) so be aware! I will not detail deaths or overly significant plot points but it could ruin the experience.

The film begins with Matthew Modine questioning locals searching for his daughter, Jen. A young college girl who supposedly had been out here on the Appalachian trail hiking with her friends at some point. She has since been missing for 6 weeks. Naturally, the locals of the small town seem more interested in getting the man to leave than actually offering any assistance. The odds are stacked against him, but as the script goes, fathers don't give up easily when it comes to their missing daughters.

We're then taken back by a time-jump to six weeks prior. Now we're introduced to the main protagonists. A group of six friends has taken a break from their modern world to escape into the wilderness of the Appalachian Trail on a hiking trip. We see them check in to the local bed and breakfast where they receive the usual foreshadowing warning to "stay on the marked trail" which of course, they completely ignore, but we'll get back to that. Proceeding into the night, they visit the local bar (the very same bar Jen's father will visit six weeks later) and get the attention of some locals. Now, these guys are definitely of the "wrong turn" variety and it becomes obvious that they don't take kindly to strangers. The situation nearly becomes volatile but is defused for the sake of tension in the scene. The group of friends leaves, but on their way out notice a shadowy figure near their car. Adam (played by Dylan McTee) is the classic alpha male and immediately switches on the aggression, throwing a glass bottle at the shady character. After a few moments of intense staredowns, the figure slips away into the dark. I'm sure that will have no consequences right? The crew heads back to the B&B for some rest before waking up early to head out on their journey.

While so far, nothing about the setup has been unique in any form or fashion except for one thing: the subtleties. We're in a "backwoods" town deep in confederate flag territory, and we have a group of diverse friends. Two of them being gay men and another being a black man. Every part of me expected some confrontation or negative to be the center of a scene but it wasn't. The film minimized the focus on these forward social issues, but in a realistic way. A few uncomfortable stares from the backward locals but that was it. Immediately this drew my attention in as the filmmakers didn't take the lazy route making a confrontation scene with those markers. But I digress:

Let's jump forward to the hiking. The group finds the marked trailheads and begins their journey, but they come to an unmarked trail. Now the correct thing to do? Continue on the marked trail. But if that happened, we wouldn't have our film, would we? So dashing off for adventure, our group heads into the wilderness. And it's not long before they come to regret that decision dearly. After a terrifying and horrific "accident", the group is thrown down the mountain into the wilderness leaving them injured and disoriented. And it's not long before they begin disappearing one by one. Eventually, those who are left come across an old shed full of boots, backpacks, and discarded camping gear. That's when they see two of what has been stalking them. Passing by the shed are what appear to be two creatures carrying one of their missing friends. After some adrenaline-fueled decisions are made, the friends confront the captors but are met with a confusing situation. The captors are visibly trying to communicate with them but there's a language barrier. Insert more adrenaline and some possibly bad choices and we have our captured friend back and well with the group. Now, this is where my review has to get a little skimpier with the specific details as the series of events to come were far beyond what I expected with this film.

The film explores free government, natural law, human instinct, and the tragedy of the human condition when left to the hands of nature. I found myself actually invested in each moment as it was impossible to predict the outcome and even the loyalties of those who called themselves friends at the beginning of the film. In most unoriginal stories of likened nature, the friends would join together and overcome the trials and traps. The father would make a heroic entrance and save his daughter from a horrid fate. We would see the survival of a character who has now grown and become stronger for the trials they've experienced.

This is not one of those stories.

Does it have a happy ending? Does anyone survive? Does anyone actually die? I can't say. Or rather, I won't. And that's because I want you to take two hours of your time and experience this film. I watched every minute, even throughout the unique end-credit crawl.

In my opinion, Wrong Turn made a huge turn in the right direction when it comes to rebooting horror and the standards we should set for it. I'm not big on ratings, but I'd give it a solid 4 out of 5 skulls.

NOW GO WATCH IT! Unless you're too much of a loyalist to those other ones. In which case: