DVD Review | Wrong Turn
Written by: Kage Alan

One of the biggest complaints critics and horror movie buff fans have about the films coming out in the genre these days is that they’re simply asinine.  Think “Halloween: Resurrection”, a film without a single scare, yet the damn thing made money.  Now comes a film like “Wrong Turn” where the director and effects master, the great Stan Winston, decide to make an all out balls-to-the-wall horror movie and it’s met with…cue the drum roll please…a critical lambasting.  Big surprise.

Chris Finn (Desmond Harrington, “Ghost Ship”) is a medical graduate or something like that on his way to what must be a very important interview.  What makes it important?  When an accident closes off what is apparently the only major highway through a section of West Virginia, he goes in search of a back way.  Is that EVER a good idea?  In his haste, Chris manages to ram the only other vehicle on the deserted road, leaving himself and a group of campers quite stranded.  Two stay behind (can we say expendable dog meat?) while Chris, Jessie (Eliza Dushku, “Bring It On”), Scott (Jeremy Sisto, “Six Feet Under”) and Carly (Emmanuelle Chriqui, “The Crow: Wicked Prayer”) all head out in search of a phone.  Damn those pesky cell phone dead zones!

Call it stereotypical if you want to, but the filmmakers would have you believe all those stories about inbreeding going in the South might just be true.  You see, our little group stumbles upon a house belonging to three inbred cannibals, Three Finger, Saw-Tooth and One-Eye, and these good ol’ boys are in the mood for some campers…probably because they taste like chicken.  Well, the group learns rather quickly what it’s like to become survivalists as they spend the next hour of screen time evading arrows, axes, fire, knives and other assorted instruments of cutlery and death.

While this won’t do anything for tourism in West Virginia, it also may not do much for Eliza Dushku’s career.  After the dreadful “Soul Survivors”, which I hated with a passion, she needs to give the genre a rest.  This isn’t to say that she’s awful in this because she’s not.  It’s just that “Wrong Turn” is a throwback to the kinds of horror-in-the-forest films seen in the 1970s and early 80s, like “The Final Terror” or “Madman”, and that isn’t going to earn her the kind of respect she deserves as an actress.  Fortunately, “Wrong Turn” provides a couple of solid scares, some tense moments of grotesque brilliance and a decent leading cast that makes the film better than it probably should be.

Fox has released “Wrong Turn” with a choice between Full Screen and Widescreen transfers.  Stick with the Widescreen.  Video quality is quite good, especially during darker sequences, while the audio is rather zesty in surround sound.  Extras for the film are, oddly enough, divided up between the two sides.  Side A features the Full Screen version of the film, a fairly lively commentary with Director Bob Schmidt and actors Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku and then a couple of featurettes; “Making of Wrong Turn” (a paltry 4 min fluff piece), “Eliza Dushku: Babe in the Woods” (3 ¾ min) and “Stan Winston” (4 ¾ min).  Side 2 has the preferred Widescreen version of the film, the same commentary, a cool poster concept gallery, 3 deleted scenes (one of which is a series of dailies), a trailer and one final featurette; “Fresh Meat: The Wounds of Wrong Turn” (9 ¼ min).

It takes quite a bit to make me squeamish or unsettled during a horror film and “Wrong Turn” had me nervous on more than one occasion.  Forget for a moment how implausible the story is and just immerse yourself in the horror the actors are doing a solid job of portraying.  I’m also quite surprised at the amount of violence and red stuff the MPAA let them get away with and it makes me wonder what was left out that wasn’t restored in an Unrated version.  While not a huge success, “Wrong Turn” made back its budget and then some, so it wasn’t a complete failure.  I actually enjoyed it and was kicking myself for watching it alone one evening before bed.  Much like driving through West Virginia, it was NOT the smartest thing to do.

Film Rating: B-
DVD Special Features: B-