Wrong Turn Review
by Frankie Paiva (swpstke AT aol DOT com)June 10th, 2003
WRONG TURN * * 1/2
2003 - USA
Director: Rob Schmidt
Starring: Eliza Dushku, Desmond Harrington, Jeremy Sisto, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Lindy Booth, and Kevin Zegers
Reviewed by Frankie Paiva
From the early scenes in Wrong Turn, which involve yuppie twenty-something Chris Finn (Desmond Harrington) avoiding freeway traffic by taking an offbeat road through the backwoods of West Virginia to foreboding music, we know something is about to go very, very wrong. Indeed it does. Chris smashes into an SUV stalled on the side of the road. The SUV contains a newly engaged couple (Jeremy Sisto and Emmanuelle Chriqui), a first-to-go couple (Lindy Booth and Kevin Zegers), and the attractive Jessie (Eliza Dushku). Once the kids figure out that someone sabotaged the SUV by purposefully tying barbed wire across the road, the nightmare begins as the kids find out just who that someone is. It isn't a pretty sight.
Wrong Turn has much in common with March's House of a 1000 Corpses. In fact, they're pretty much exactly the same movie. Obviously there's not a whole lot of room for originality in the horror genre, but the similarities are striking. Both have bad families of inbred cannibals in the deep woods of the south, both have mysterious gas station owners, both have genetically deformed characters, and both have bad acting. But while Corpses went for a more stylized, tongue-in-cheek approach, Wrong Turn is supposed to be taken as a serious film. Yet it lingers between moments of terror and moments of humor. It restrains itself in a way the excessive Corpses never did. The result is that it's actually quite scary as long as you're willing to suspend a little disbelief.
Credit for the effectiveness of the film belongs to Stan Winston for his make-up design, and for the art direction and music crews. The loud foreboding music helps a lot with the suspense of the film in a way that isn't annoying or overdone like most other teen horror movies. The design of the creature's house was jam-packed with standard scary horror movie items, and provided an effective atmosphere of terror. The creatures themselves, which we as an audience are wisely never totally shown, are An American Werewolf in London and Gollum rejects, but they work nonetheless.
None of the performances in the film are remarkable. Jeremy Sisto, great on HBO's Six Feet Under, is present for no reason in a role that any actor could make passable. Still, he gets the best line in the movie. I thought Eliza Dushku had moved on from making films like this. Someone needs to get her a new agent. Desmond Harrington is bland as the hero of the film. He's always calm and collected. At no point does he actually really seem all that scared. Finally, it's worth noting that the boyfriend in the first-to-go couple is none other than the grown-up Kevin Zegers, the little boy from Air Bud. My how things change.
Wrong Turn is a cut above any of the horror movies so far this year. It has moments of genuine terror, but isn't totally hell-bent on making the audience uncomfortable. It's not trying to be funny or cheeky in any way. Finally, it's not PG-13 so it doesn't come off as totally bland (I'm looking at you, Darkness Falls). Wrong Turn is simply passable horror entertainment. It would make a fine rental.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
