![]() ![]() And for all its stabs at progressiveness, this is still a film in which Darius bargains for his life with his potential contributions to the Foundation’s society while Jen simply offers herself up as good breeding stock. ![]() Despite the surface plays at evenhandedness, it’s never in doubt who we’re supposed to sympathize with. The main issue is the way the filmmakers stack the deck: We’re meant to identify against Adam’s class bigotry and see the Foundation as somewhat reasonable in their terrorization of the youths (after one of their own has been killed), yet the movie presents the Wrenwooders as backward, menacing good ol’ boys and gals, and the Foundationers are costumed and filmed for maximum scariness and freakiness. Rather than the cannibalism of the ’03 film, this WRONG TURN would like to offer food for thought, but McElroy and director Mike P. (They evidently have some of the amenities of civilization, though, as witness the perfectly trimmed beard on their leader John Venable, played by WE ARE WHAT WE ARE’s Bill Sage.) There’s particular relevance to the Foundation’s formation given recent events: In 1859, prior to the Civil War, its founders saw the country’s divisive violence coming and wanted no part of it, literally heading into the hills to escape it. McElroy’s script sets up parallels intended to blur the lines between the villains and victims: Darius’ dream is to establish a utopian, inclusive community, of the type the Foundation represents a primitive variation. But of course, the sextet, rounded out by Adam’s girlfriend Milla (Emma Dumont), strays into the Appalachian woods in search of an abandoned fort, and run afoul of “The Foundation,” a small, self-sufficient colony who don’t take kindly to anyone encroaching on their turf. The locals aren’t too thrilled to see these outsiders either, and the proprietor of the bed-and-breakfast where they’re staying warns them to stay on the designated trails. Serving as the voice of privileged prejudice is Adam (Dylan McTee), who looks down on the inhabitants of Wrenwood, Virginia as redneck hicks when they stop in at a local bar ahead of a hiking trip. Gone are the deformed freaks who populated the previous films, and the traveling youths who take the wrong turn are now a diverse group that includes Jen (THE LODGERS’ Charlotte Vega) and her African-American fiancé Darius (Adain Bradley), and gay couple Luis (Adrian Favela) and Gary (Vardaan Arora). It’s a sociopolitical edge, signaled by the use of “America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)” in the trailer seen below, that’s more admirable in ambition than successful in execution. It’s therefore not surprising that returning original screenwriter Alan McElroy and the producers at Constantin Film would want to take a different turn in the reboot that opens today in select theatrical release. There have been countless subsequent movies like it, including the franchise it spawned, which began with Joe Lynch’s just-as-good WRONG TURN 2 and then quickly and steeply descended into direct-to-video torture schlock. It’s a rather sobering thought that Rob Schmidt’s WRONG TURN is now almost a generation old, since it first came out in 2003 as one of the first 21st-century films to revive the ’70s survival-horror aesthetic. Jen’s earnest dad, Scott (Matthew Modine), comes looking for her, only to discover something horrifying about who these mountain folk actually are and the strange alternative society they have built in secret deep in the forest wilderness for a century or more.Starring Charlotte Vega, Adain Bradley and Bill Sage ![]() After rashly deciding to go off the official path, into the dense woodland, in search of a “civil war fort” (an ominous destination if ever there was one), they are gruesomely set upon by sinister hillbillies and mountain men dressed in weird animal furs and skulls like Trumpites invading the Capitol. This is also a reboot or summation in that it is called, simply, Wrong Turn, like the first one, without the number seven.Ĭharlotte Vega plays Jen, a fresh-faced twentysomething hiking the Appalachian trail with a group of her friends. T his horror is pretty crass and generic, yet there is occasionally a wacky gonzo energy to this film by director Mike P Nelson, the seventh movie in the Wrong Turn slasher franchise, which began back in 2003 in the classic 1970s style of The Hills Have Eyes. ![]()
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