A Good Day For A "Wrong Turn" Movie Review

 Today I decided to review a movie from the year 2003. Wrong Turn, directed by Rob Schmidt (The Alphabet Killer), focuses on a group of young adults who are stranded on an abandoned dirt road in the woodlands of West Virginia, fighting for their lives against a family of blood-thirty cannibals.

The movie introduces us to a male and female duo rock climbing. They are just enjoying their day but then they are soon both pursued by an unknown person, or persons. The man makes it to the top of the rock wall and is then immediately attacked and killed. The girl in a panic has her rope cut and she falls. In an effort to escape she trips, falls, and is eventually dragged away, leading into the actual story line.

It all starts when Chris Flynn, played by Desmond Harrington (Dexter, Dark Knight Rises), gets sidetracked on his way to Raleigh for a job interview. He reads on a map at an abandoned gas station that there is a road that may bypass the highway.

He makes his way down the road and quickly crashes into a car with flat tires that is parked in the middle of the road. The group ran across some barb wire that was lying in the road. This is when we meet co-star Jessie, played by Eliza Dushku (Bring It On), and a group of her friends. They team up to try and find some help. But they are in the middle of no where, in the woods of West Virginia. Not quite the ideal situation.

As this is going on, two member of the group stay behind to keep each other company. They accidentally separate from each other, and this results in both of them getting killed.

They soon come upon a wooden cabin and decide to go inside to see if the owners of the house have a phone. Nice choice. When they enter they soon discover that the owners of the house were the ones who put the wire in the road, and they also have body parts in jars in their fridge. As soon as they decide to leave, a family of three cannibals drive up to the house, ironically towing the groups vehicles.

The group hides in the house until the family falls asleep. But when they try to escape, the family wakes and the group in on the run. They end up running into a field filled with the cars stolen by these cannibals. And what do you think happens next? The three flesh eaters pull up and approach the yard. Chris in an attempt to save the group runs to distract the enemy, but ultimately gets shot in the leg. He survives, but can barely walk. Eventually all four escape thanks to Scott (Jeremy Sisto), who distracts their chasers but he gets shot with a few arrows, and you know the rest.

The three remaining members of a group decide to camp out in an old watch tower. But they don't stay for very long thanks to a very loud CB radio that gives them away. The cannibals then smoke out the three, trying to get them to come out. So instead they jump onto a nearby tree, in hopes to avoid the killers. But one makes his way up and we then lose Scott's girlfriend Carly's (Emmanuelle Chriqui- Entourage) head.

They survive through the night but early the next day Jessie gets captured and Chris is knocked down a hill and runs into a police officer driving on the road. He heard the call from the watch tower, but soon after he's killed by an arrow.

Chris hides under the cop car and holds on while Saw-Tooth (Garry Robbins) drives back to the cabin. Jessie is tied to a bed, death staring her in the face. But just before anything happens, Chris backs the car into the house, starting a fire and the final climax commences.

He ran over One-Eye (Ted Clark) entering the house so he didn't have to worry about him too much. Then Saw-Tooth becomes a problem, but luckily Jessie finally gets free and shoots an arrow through the back of his head. We think all is okay, until Three-Finger (Julian Richings) pulls out his knives. The fight doesn't last very long because Jessie drives an axe into the chest of Three-Finger, sealing his fate. So we think. Chris finishes the fight by shooting two gas tanks conveniently placed on the back of the cop car he drove through the side of the house, ultimately blowing up the house.

Now I think the ending is actually pretty good. Chris and Jessie show up at the same gas station as in the beginning and Chris tears down the map so no one will ever take a "wrong turn" again.


Pros:

• I thought a lot of the cinematography was shot beautifully. Some of the shots of the forest were great, like some of the shot from the watch tower.
• The three cannibals looked very realistic, and each one of them brought their own special touch to their own character.
• It gave us some very clever kills and it brought a lot of good gore to the horror genre.

Cons:

• I feel that the acting from some of the stars could have been a little bit better. I didn't see as much emotion in some of those high pressure scenes.

Now on a scale from A-F, I give "Wrong Turn" a... B!

I think that this movie is very underrated. I like the feeling that it have that maybe someone was watching them the entire time. The kills were very original and they found new and unique ways to use barbed wire. The cannibals couldn't have been played any better. They were lively, dangerous, and made the characters fight tooth and nail the entire time. It's not my favorite of the series, but it is definitely a movie worth watching.

Thanks for reading everyone and come back anytime for everything that is horror!



Image References

• www.imdb.com 
• http://cdn.meme.am/instances/54467804.jpg 
•  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOi_Oa7SF7L-mtVZRkix1UVTeFFaJExxmYz0t_qc12RTzOyEcr_yAuRWduTyCyXDniG3EykKEuo1yNqT3NXC8R5Ih4NYJQ2dFwl25yp32SbxayccWuiIN95MfFojT16CAY7ZmLc5Cb69x2/s1600/cop+arrow+in+eye.jpg
•  http://images.complex.com/complex/image/upload/t_article_image/xdcm5txa0bppusbcpopm.jpg
• http://iconsoffright.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Wrong-Turn-2003-movie-poster.jpg