September 18, 2009

Who says, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to?” Well, I’ve been saying that for a few years now, especially when it comes to horror movies. It seems that studios are so focused on sanitizing their films to squeak into that coveted PG-13 niche that they have forgotten what makes a good horror movie actually good…blood, sex, and senseless violence, and throw in a few mutated cannibals while you’re at it.

Wrong Turn has just been released on Blu-ray allowing horror genre fans an HD glimpse at a horror movie that manages to get it right – mostly because the director is intentionally paying homage to horror classics like The Hills Have Eyes, Chainsaw Massacre, and that fear of wilderness isolation I haven’t experienced since the days of Deliverance.

The movie kicks off with a young couple rock-climbing in the West Virginia (actually Canada) wilderness. It’s a predictable scene when the boy reaching the top, gets killed and tossed over the edge while his girlfriend screams, cuts the rope, falls, and gets whisked away by some unseen enemy. What could it be?

The opening credit sequence answers that with a montage of newspaper articles and research papers about inbreeding mountain folk and a string of missing tourists, but you won’t learn the true origins of this cannibalistic mountain tribe until Wrong Turn 2. Suffice to say, we have a family of mutants living in the woods and they have eaten all the wildlife so they must now turn to eating wayward travelers.

Chris Flynn (Desmond Harrington) is one such traveler who comes upon a traffic jam that will make him late for his appointment in the city. After making a quick U-turn he leaves the main (safe) road and stops at a gas station to use the phone (which doesn’t work) and gets some bad travel advice from the toothless attendant. As Chris sets off on a new, more secluded route he comes to a fork in the road and you guessed it…he makes a WRONG TURN.

Shortly thereafter he smacks into the rear of a stranded SUV who ran over some razor wire (a trap set by the mountain folk). His awesome Mustang is out of commission so he sets off on foot with his new companions (Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, and Eliza Dushku). There are two other characters who stay behind, but they are killed off so quickly it’s not worth going to IMDB to find out their names. Dushku, who plays Jessie, is the only character of real substance, even if she plays the role pretty much like every other role she's ever played. She’s so one-dimensional but I can't help but love her.

Our wandering band of “victims” stumbles upon a creepy house and decide to check inside for a phone. The décor of this cabin warns of the unspeakable atrocities that have taken place in the past and will take place before the credits role, and before you can say “who’s been sleeping in my bed”, the three bears, or in this case, mutant brothers, return home forcing our stars to hide under the bed and in the closet as they watch the friends they left back at the SUV get dragged into the house and dismembered for dinner.

Our characters escape, only to be hunted down one by one as they stumble through the woods, through an abandoned junk yard full of cars the mutants have collected over the years, into a ranger tower, into the treetops, and finally back to the mutants’ cabin for the grand finale. It’s predictable, gory, scary at times, completely disgusting, and a nice homage to the classic horror genre.

Filmmaking: 7
Wrong Turn isn’t going to win any awards for storytelling or character development. It follows the classic formula of hungry mutants + sexy 20-something cast + 100 gallons of stage blood equals box office smash. While the victims are paper-thin in their origins and story arc, the family of cannibals is perhaps some of the best stalkers I’ve seen in the genre. Speaking with only grunts and gestures, the flawless makeup of Stan Winston really sells the experience and gives these despicable creatures a life of their own and even a sense of family. The camera work and staging for the chases and encounters is executed with classic perfection.

Visuals: 6
From a location, makeup, and special effects standpoint Wrong Turn is excellent, but from a technical Blu-ray perspective this DVD is far down the line when it comes to quality. Some of the initial aerial shots are gorgeous but when you get into the meat of the movie there is an overall lack of focus and obvious DNR at work that blurs the finer details. Detail is lacking in the close-ups and even the colors seem to be washed out. Black levels aren't as solid as I'd like and things get grainy for the nighttime footage. Sure, it’s in 1080p, but I seriously doubt it looks much better than an upconverted SD version of the film.

Sound: 8
Wrong Turn offers a disturbingly immersive DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix that combines the sounds of wind and foliage and the occasional snapping twig or rustling bush in the rear channel to make you sit up in your seat. The full surround scape is used with great effect, especially for the numerous bow and arrow sequences. The sound effects are sickening, and while not particularly memorable, the score does its job in setting and maintaining the appropriate level of suspense.

Value: 6
We get a standard offering of extras with Wrong Turn starting with a feature commentary with the Director, Rob Schmidt, and Eliza Dushku, and Desmond Harrington who discuss the film in a casual atmosphere. It’s informative and entertaining. This is followed up with 3 deleted scenes and four features including Fresh Meat, a 9-minute production documentary focused on Stan Winston’s effects, a 4-minute Making of… feature that is pretty worthless, a 4-minute feature focusing on Eliza Dushku's role in the film, and finally, a 5-minute tribute to Stan Winston – a true master of his craft. Toss in a trailer and we are done.

Overall: 6.8
This was my first time seeing Wrong Turn and while I wasn’t all that impressed from a technical standpoint, the actual movie was entertaining and had me on the edge of my seat for most of the film. It’s a fairly predictable story that will have you totally engaged and yelling, “Don’t go in there” or “Look out!” at the screen. If you are a fan of Eliza, or mutant cannibals then you can do a lot worse than adding Wrong Turn to your video library, but if you already own an SD copy then this probably isn’t worth the upgrade.