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| Wrong Turn |
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| Anticipation Level: |
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| How excited (or not) I am to see this movie... |
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Its like a 70s horror flick. Ah, I cant tell you how many times Ive heard this in the past year. Whether it was to describe a horror film in the works or one that was just released, the phrase gets tossed around a bit too often. Critics said Jeepers Creepers hearkened back to the days of gore, though I felt it had a more 1930s flavor. I was even recently told the upcoming Blade 2 has a very 70s feel. Now, Im sure the second vampire slayer installment is in good hands, but I think horror film directors need to slow down. Let the fans decide if the film feels like it crawled out of horrors much-loved era because, believe me, if the flick doesnt live up to its description and completely sucks...the fansll tear it apart and use the pieces to make award-winning chili.
So far, Ive seen only one film thats captured the essence of the 70s and thats House of 1000 Corpses (read our review). If Wrong Turn, our true focus here, puts on the screen every nasty image described within the script, it could prove to be another successful homage to films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and even The Johnsons.
Our story of brutal violence and gory mayhem begins with our introduction to Thomas Avon, a med student on his way home to see the folks. Weary of his career choice, the trip home is a decision-maker: continue his schooling or take on his fathers construction business. During his cruise through West Virginia in a 67 Mustang, Avon takes a seemingly sweet little detour down a side road of the highway only to slam into the back of an idle Jeep in the middle of the road. Aside from the now obvious reasons, the Jeep was in pretty rough shape: all the tires were blown out thanks to a curiously-placed strip of barbed wire...but its no barbed wire Avons ever seen before.
Anyhow, the Jeeps occupants were close by and Avon has the pleasure to meet them quickly. Youve got the extremely sexy Jessie, the annoying sparkplug Carly, the David Arquette-ish Scott, the conservative Francine, and her man, Evan, a brawny dope. Stuck out in the middle of the woods without a cell phone signal, the group set off down the road in hopes of finding a phone or another car. Of course, two (Francine and Evan) decide to stay behind...just in case someone comes along. Bad move. Clueless Evan is slaughtered while taking a piss and Francine is dragged away by unknown killers.
Way off the trail, deep in the woods the rest of the gang comes upon a dilapidated cabin surrounded by the skeletons of rusty, stripped cars. Its a setting that would have Leatherface grinning; its the sights inside the cabin that would have our favorite chainsaw-wielding maniac dancing his famous jig. Jars filled with medical atrocities. Walls covered with crude weapons. A bathtub filled with red fluid. Hmm, either Goldielocks three bears have gone bonkers or three hideously deformed, inbred, hulking mountain men take residence here. Unfortunately for Avon and his newfound friends, they find its the latter situation and in a truly horrendous scene the Mountain Men (Saw-tooth, Three-finger, and One-eye) are introduced performing blood-chilling acts to Francines dead body.
From that point on its a cat and mouse chase through the Appalachian Mountains as Avon, Jessie, Carly and Scott run for their lives from the cannibalistic menace. Who will survive and what will be left of them? Wrong Turn will have to come up with its own ominous tagline but I promise you this, if it squeaks by the MPAA the flick will please those aching for bloodshed.
On one hand were lucky that the screenwriter is familiar to the genre, on the other, his history is not one to brag about. McElroy also penned Halloween 4. Though Wrong Turn is no masterpiece of terror, it serves its purpose as a gratuitously graphic flick with occasional moments of true goose-pimply frights.
The Mountain Men are unstoppable, bloodthirsty locomotives that, aside from providing the scares, help move the story along at a frantic, mean pace. Characters are established and developed based on their life expectancy. Dont expect a study in the human spirit if they die early. Avon, fortunately, is at least given some sort of a character arc, albeit a weak one, to help you care a bit about the guy while Jessie provides emotional support. One thing you dont have to worry about is the stupidity level in these characters. Theyre a smart bunch who are pushed to the limits and know, if they stop, they will die. Gruesomely. So audience-groaning character decisions are kept to a minimum.
Truthfully, if character is your real concern then you have no business seeing Wrong Turn.
Where McElroy really floored me was in his writing. Story-wise, youve got a simple horror/chase film. Description-wise, Alan is quite the visionary. Vivid details of the Virginian forest right down to the types of flowers make one think hes gone a bit overboard in the research department. But it helps establish a world in the readers mind. As explosive as they come across on the big screen, action sequences in scripts, for me, always tend to be extremely boring. Pages of endless description does absolutely nothing for me even though, here, McElroys words come across brilliantly on a sheet of paper. Wrong Turn has, perhaps, four or five major suspense sequences that are really imaginative. They do run long. I have no doubt in my mind, on the screen theyll look great.
The violence alone is enough to make any member of the MPAA go pale. See, the great thing about the 70s is that gritty films like Dawn of the Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre were at least shown in theaters. Were living in a completely different time where over-sensitivity is at an all time high so its really no wonder why a film like House of 1000 Corpses has trouble getting wide release. You set out to make a truly rough film these days and youre bound to wind up with trouble. Sometimes its straight-to-video release or no release, sweetheart.
As much as I enjoyed Wrong Turn I think its efforts will lead to its own eventual downfall. Its sad to say this but if the Schmidt sticks to the script and brings to the screen every image McElroy portrays, censors will start throwing foul flags at every scene change. If cuts are made or if Schmidt shirks on the graphic tone the film will lose its edgeand wheres the fun in that? |
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