Wrong Turn Year: 2003 Director: Rob Schmidt Written by: Alan McElroy Threat: Mutant Hillbillies Weapon of Choice: Axe Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
I remember seeing the trailer for this one and thinking it might be pretty good. I dragged my feet, though, and missed it in the theatre. At least, when I did finally see it, Rish was around to enjoy it with me.
A young man in a hurry chooses to head down a dirt track when he finds the highway blocked by an accident. Shortly after that, he's in an accident of his own, rear-ending an SUV that has a blown tire. He teams up with the people from the SUV to wander around the backwoods looking for help. Death follows.
I like Eliza Dushku as much as the next man and she's really pretty good in this one. The rest of the cast ain't all that bad either. Combine their talents with a pretty good script, great monster make-up from our hero Stan Winston and this ended up being a really good movie.
This sits firmly in the genre of Texas Chainsaw and The Hills Have Eyes, but its slick production values, smart dialogue and good acting make it much more palatable somehow. In some ways this one takes the best of that '70s backwoods horror, combines it with the modern teen horror and makes something that transcends the base elements of its sub-genres.
Definitely worth checking this one out. I was pleasantly surprised by it and there are some effects that make it worth seeing even if you aren't really a fan of this particular type of movie.

Rish's Reviews
"I'll take Imbred Backwoods Serial Killers for $800, Alex."
When tyranist and I would spend time around other people, they'd often be amazed (or annoyed, depending on the person) by how similar we were in our tastes and interests, or way of talking and philosophies, our senses of humour and the food we liked to eat. Since I often focus on the ways in which we are different, it shocked me recently when we watched a bunch of films and had the exact same reaction to them.
Everything tyranist just said about Wrong Turn I agree with. We watched it and House of 1000 Corpses on the same night, two modern throwbacks to gritty 1970's Horror. And I know I speak for my friend when I say that we liked Wrong Turn more than all the gritty 1970's flicks it was imitating. It wasn't the best film ever (or probably even of the year), but it was much better than it had any right to be.
Part of that was due to the fact that the characters were just so likeable. They were well-acted and thoughtful, and not only were they attractive, but they were nice people (something sorely lacking in 90% of the slashers I've paid to see). The audience doesn't want bad things to happen to people they like, and that makes the scares more effective.
The script was first-rate, its death makeup effects were astounding and its villains truly menacing. It had a sequence with our heroes trapped in the bad guys' lair that was about as tense as you can get.
The only negatives I can think of are that the villains--the mutant hillbillies, as we called them--were disgusting and personality-less, rather than cooly-designed and interesting. But that actually served to make us like them less and want the heroes to survive and/or kill them, so what can I say? And, folks, the film DID have a totally wasted opportunity for nudity. And that doesn't help anybody, does it?

Total Skulls: 22

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?