A while ago I watched the whole Texas Chainsaw franchise from the beginning to the end (so far) and this time I've focused on that series less appreciated country cousin, the Wrong Turn films. In general loathed by all serious horror fans out there, but obviously they’re going well and there’s one sequel after another churned out on location in Bulgaria. The first one actually had some hype around, produced by Stan Winston, directed by hot newcomer Rob Schmidt and starring some cool young talents. And it was (quite) gory.
I liked Wrong Turn (2003) a lot when I saw it the first time and it’s one of those films I’m getting back to from time to time because it’s just so simple, effective and unpretentious. And talking about being pretentious, it’s a pretty well-written film with a good cast. While not even close to what other movies attempted during the same time and after, it’s still pretty violent - but lacks the insanity of the gore compared to what’s found in the sequels.
Wrong Turn probably did very good on home video, and in 2007 Wrong Turn 2: Dead End came - direct on DVD (I think so anyway, never seen it near a cinema!). This time a new hot directed stepped aboard, Joe Lynch, and he brought with him more humor, more satire and a fun cast headed by the always awesome Henry Rollins. Spoofing - sometimes quite accurately - reality shows it delivers heavy on the gore and violence, thank you for that Joe, and more sex. In many ways it’s better than the first one, but lacks the seriousness I like.
Declan O'Brien took the franchise by the hand and gave us Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead in 2009. O’Brien is veteran of DTV sequels, SyFy channel flicks modern mainstream exploitation and tried hard to bring some life into the generic script handed to him. The result is...still okay, actually, considering the very bad rap it’s gotten over the years. Some fun gore and cheesy twists, but it doesn’t feel like an inspired production.
Thankfully it gets better in 2011’s Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings, which actually is even more generic than its precursor! BUT… this time O’Brien himself wrote it also and the result is a lot better pace, more gore, more entertaining aspects of a franchise doomed to die slowly. Set in the winter and in an abandoned asylum in the middle nowhere it brings on the entertainment and silliness in good doses. It won’t change your world, but maybe make it less boring.
The next year, 2012, came the last of O’Brien’s adventures with the inbred redneck family; Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines. Now, just be calm. Because I would say this is the best one since the first. Yeah, no kidding. Shot in and around a Small Town movie set in Bulgaria somewhere, it brings the terror to the asphalt. It works better than it should, with a good cast - headlined by the excellent Doug Bradley, who have a lot of fun being a sick fuck and a decent but not especially original story. Cross Wrong Turn with Assault on Precinct 13 and you’ve got it.
Part 6, who kinda was released in 2014, had problems from the beginning. Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort did the mistake of hiring a set decorate who used REAL photos of people who had disappeared. No wonder the relatives sued and the distributed pulled back the release. So now every photo - EVERY one - in the whole movie is blurred, to don’t risk anything. But looking past this, part 6 is tries to do something new. This is basically a new movie adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear, or to be more correct; a version of the earlier movie versions of Lovecraft’s story. Especially Hemoglobin from 1997. A new director, Valeri Milev, and a script by Frank H. Woodward (who directed and wrote a Lovecraft doc some years ago) makes this part something new. Dark, more subtle and serious - but with really nasty violence. I liked it.
It’s easy to claim this is a shit franchise for idiots. But if you stop comparing it to the fucking Godfather or The Shining you’ll see most of them are quite fun. Hardly original, but produced to deliver some gory, silly, stupid and more gory entertainment for the masses.
Sex and violence, always a winner.
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