Following a car crash on a desolate stretch of road, Chris (Desmond Harrington), Jessie (Eliza Dusku) and four other teenagers find themselves lost in the woods and under attack by a family of cannibalistic mountain men.
’Wrong Turn’ is a movie that harks back to the exploitation films of the 1970’s, particularly ’The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974) and ’The Hills Have Eyes’ (1977). Sadly this movie lacks the raw grittiness that made the aforementioned movies so entertaining. That is not to say ’Wrong Turn’ is not enjoyable, in fact, I found it a rather interesting modern update of the 70’s exploitation flicks. The main problem with ’Wrong Turn’ is the typical, over-dramatic, Hollywood style soundtrack. ’The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ managed to instil fear in its viewers without feeling the need to increase the volume a few decibels during every `scary’ part. ’Wrong Turn’ is fairly unnerving in its own right and does not need the loud soundtrack to improve the story. If anything the movie is damaged by the increasingly over-dramatic soundtrack which has very little originality to it anyway.
Rob Schmidt directed ’Wrong Turn’ and did so with a fairly good degree of competence. From the wonderfully crafted opening scenes, all the way to the dark and eerie ending, Schmidt managed to construct an almost continuously sinister atmosphere featuring some intelligent camerawork and good special effects. ’Wrong Turn’ also deserves credit for the lack of CGI, a rare occurrence these days in a movie. Instead of CGI, the filmmakers chose to use the type of gory effects so prevalent in the films ’Wrong Turn’ takes influence from. Accompanying the special effects were some fairly well constructed make-up effects for the inbred cannibals, a little unoriginal perhaps, but nonetheless convincing and relatively threatening. ’Wrong Turn’ also benefited from some good performances from the cast, particularly Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku. Alas, Emmanuelle Chriqui became little more than an annoyance after a while with her constant pathetic squealing.
I’d say that ’Wrong Turn’ is worth checking out for horror fans. While not being as good, or original, as many of the 70’s exploitation flicks it possesses some enthralling scenes and an awareness for the movies that influenced it. There are flaws, but fewer than with most of the Hollywood horror films currently being released. Fans of recent horror should enjoy this movie a lot but I think fans of the older horror films will not be quite as impressed. Enjoyable nonetheless!