So what's it all about?
A group of young adults get stuck in a traffic jam on the highway and
decide to take a shortcut through the forest. Unfortunately they take a
“Wrong Turn” and are ambushed by a group of cannibalistic, inbred mountain
men. They are hunted and killed off one by one, until those remaining
fight back.
Is it any good?
If you enjoy a good horror/thriller, this one is a must see. It’s the
first film in a long, long time that has succeeded in startling me. This
is a horror in the traditional sense: It’s scary because of the way it is
filmed, not because of the gore and the killings (although there’s plenty
of that). Eerie music and lots of close-up shots are brilliantly used to
heighten the tension, and with the first-person camera technique you never
know if a person is being stalked or not. At the start of the movie you
only see quick glimpses of the mountain men, which keeps building
anticipation. Once you see them in full view, well, you’ll rather wish you
hadn’t.
Stan Winston, who was also responsible for the special effects in
Terminator, Predator and Jurassic Park, produces “Wrong Turn” and the
make-up of the mountain men is gruesomely realistic and the insane,
maniacal laughter of one of the mountain men is particularly chilling.
Here’s something to chew on when you watch it: All the deformities shown
have been documented in medical journals.
The violence is gruesome and explicit. People get shot with, arrows,
chopped up, dissected, decapitated and garrotted with barbed wire. Do not
watch this if you are squeamish or prone to nightmares.
Score: 4/5
How about those special features?
There are quite a couple of extras, but not all good. There’s the
“Making of” which includes interviews with the producer and lead actors, a
PR segment on lead actress Eliza Dushku (which isn’t really worth
watching), a featurette on Stan Winston and “Fresh Meat: The Wounds of
Wrong Turn”, which is definitely worth watching. Here they go into detail
about the make up used on the mountain men, the deformities and special
effects used in some of the killings.
There’s a couple of deleted and extended scenes which aren’t great,
but the “Francine Kill” segment is interesting, showing all the different
shots used for her murder. The rest of the stuff is promo related - a
couple of posters and the film trailer.
The audio commentary features the producer and two lead actors and
there’s also subtitles for the hard of hearing.
Score: 2/5
Best part:
The chase seen in the tree tops.
Best quote:
"We’re never going into the woods again." (What do you know, he’s
right!)
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Wrong
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