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Wrong Turn
Release Date: May 30, 2003
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Rob Schmidt
Screenwriter: Alan B. McElroy, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Lawrence O'Neil
Starring: Eliza
Dushku, Jeremy Sisto, Desmond Harrington, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Lindy Booth, Ted
Clark, Julian Richings, Garry Robbins, Kevin Zegers
Genre: Horror
MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence and gore, some language and drug use)
Official Website: WrongTurnmovie.com
Plot Summary: Chris (Harrington) has a job interview in Raleigh in three
hours and he's making good time in his refurbished classic Mustang
convertible… until an accident miles down the highway turns Chris' three-hour
trip into a six-hour wait. Determined to make his critical appointment, Chris
makes a hard U-turn and heads back up the West Virginia highway. Running low on
fuel, he finds a dirt road that seemingly intersects the highway after about 20
miles. It's clearly a road less traveled, but to Chris it seems to be a quick
fix to get around the highway traffic jam. Not far away, Jessie (Dushku) and her
friends, Carly (Chriqui), Carly's boyfriend Scott (Sisto), Evan (Zegers) and his
girlfriend Francine (Booth), stand quiet; stunned as they survey what's left of
their road trip after the tires blow out, leaving them stranded deep in the
middle of the woods. Chris heads down the dusty, winding back road, as the green
forest canopy overhead casts ominous shadows of twilight on his foreboding path.
He loses control around the curve and by the time he can see the disabled Range
Rover in front of him it is too late to stop or swerve. The rear wheels lock up
and the Mustang roars into the back of the SUV, scattering the people
surrounding it. Luckily, no one is seriously hurt in the collision but egos are
bruised and tempers flare. Chris is apologetic and Jessie is the calming force
when she discovers the barbed wire that was stretched across the road. The blown
out tires were seemingly the result of a prank. The group quickly bands
together, determined to find a phone. Evan and Francine stay with the cars, as
the other four make their way down the road. As they venture deeper and deeper
into the woods, the idea of a prankster grows dim when they discover a mountain
cabin filled with grisly hunting weapons and horrific souvenirs of the hunt.
They are now certain that whomever - or whatever - lives in the cabin are
responsible for the barbed-wire trap. What the foursome doesn't know is that
Evan and Francine are now dead, mercilessly mutilated by three gruesome mountain
men. Facing an uncertain and possibly horrific fate at the hands of these men,
the four friends are sure of one thing: they will never go camping again.
We are never going into the woods
again.
--Dialogue from Wrong
Turn
Review by Blake French:
- Television is not that bad, ah?
A few years ago, I was driving through the Appalachian Mountains
in beautiful West Virginia. Amazed by the vast, wooded wilderness, I decided to
take a detour and stop at a state park to explore some hiking trails. I found an
impressive path that led through the mountains and bypassed glimmering waterfalls,
and wandered the path for several hours. Before long, the sun began to set, and
the already-shaded trail darkened very quickly. As I scrambled to find my way back
to my car before the entire nightfall, I thought a similar setting would make a
great horror movie.
Apparently, screenwriter Alan B. McElroy (Spawn) had the
same idea for a "guilty pleasure" movie. Unfortunately, there’s
nothing pleasurable about Wrong Turn. Although the premise has potential,
the film brings nothing new to the genre.
A young man named Chris (Desmond Harrington) is traveling to a job
interview when he takes a shortcut down a dirt road in order to avoid a traffic
jam on the interstate. But he doesn’t get far before he takes his eyes off the
road and crashes into a stranded SUV. Luckily, neither the passengers (Emmanuelle
Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, Kevin Zegers, Lindy Booth, and Eliza Dushku) nor Chris
sustain injuries. Unluckily, they are about to encounter cannibalistic mountain
men who hunger for fresh flesh (try to say that five times fast).
From Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku’s pathetic attempts to
sustain horror momentum to Kevin "Air Bud" Zegers’ brief appearance in
the beginning of the film, Wrong Turn offers bad acting abound. Since this
is a "slasher" flick, however, talent does not matter much, just as long
as the women—who, of course, all look like supermodels—wear skimpy,
transparent outfits throughout the movie. Instead of getting shots of the women in
skin-tight apparel, director Rob Schmidt should have concerned himself more with
the film’s style than substance. In other words, if you’re looking for scares…keep
looking.
Sex-appeal
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