Wrong Turn - The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.


	Wrong Turn USA 2003. Director: Rob Schmidt Cast: Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku, Emanuelle Criqui, Lindy Booth As one character so aptly says, "May I here mention a film called Deliverance?". Let's add to that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Or Just Before Dawn. If you have seen any of them you won't find much here to surprise you. If you haven't seen them, congratulations. You are in for a jolt, I guess. Desmond Harrington (from The Hole) is driving through the redneck countryside of West Virginia, on his way to something important, when he because of a traffic jam is forced to take a short cut through the woods. Stupid Idea says the toothless owner of the only gasstation within 50 miles. Accidentally Desmond then crashes into five other kids who are stuck within the woods because of a flat tire. Together they start walking for help or a telephone, leaving two of them behind to watch the cars. Eventually the company find a ragged cabin, full of old cars and junk and human body parts. It shows the cabin is inherited by a family of cannibalistic inbreds, and now they're coming home. Wrong Turn is produced by fx-king Stan Winston and it shows. He has created some of his best make-up work for this movie and he knows it. Which is why we see the mutants a little too much and a bit too early. But it's damn good work. The rest of the film is a mixture of both good and bad. It is supposed to be a '70s style horror movie, but it comes complete with all its flaws and clichés as well, with the biggest drawback here being that director Schmidt doesn't use his knockout set-pieces to its best advantages. For instance, there's great potential in the watchtower siege (three kids being trapped up in a watchtower), but it all looks like a studio shot with very little atmosphere. Only the following treetop sequence delivers the chills. Kids being chased by the mutants up in the trees, way above the ground. I can't remember if I've even seen that before. Anyway, there's no real explanation for the mutants, they're just there and must have been for ages without anyone noticing despite the country being fairly crowded. They're supposed to be cannibals but no one's seen eating. But the killings, of which there are plenty, are surprisingly gory and detailed (barbed wire seem to be the favorite weapon of choice) and the taut suspence is kept on a constant high level for most of the time, and in the end it all makes Wrong Turn a good and effective horror movie. © The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.