Charlotte Vega and Adain Bradley in Wrong Turn. Courtesy of Saban Films.
Wrong Turn combines the pure genre thrills of early aughts slashers with more modern horror sensibilities to make a surprisingly satisfying folk horror romp.
There's something so comforting about Wrong Turn. Wait. That sounds wrong when people are literally being killed and mutilated in the woods. I guess a more apt description is that it's nostalgic. It's comforting because it feels so familiar. The Wrong Turn franchise was a staple of the bad slasher series boom of the aughts that was mostly dominated by reboots of 80s films that removed everything that made them the genre so enjoyable to watch. However, with Mike P. Nelson at the helm directing from a screenplay by Alan B. McElroy — infamously known for writing Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and the original Wrong Turn — this iteration gets it just right.
Jen (Charlotte Vega), her boyfriend Darius (Adain Bradley), and their friends arrive in a small town in rural Virginia where they plan to start a hike on the Appalachian trail. Before they leave, they're warned by local Nate (Tim de Zarn) to stick to the marked trails as the woods contain unseen dangers. Horror fans should recognize de Zarn as “the harbinger” in The Cabin in the Woods. You know, the man that is basically wearing a “you will die” sign as the hapless teenagers march towards their bloody fate. That would've come in handy for this group since they ignore his warning and… take a wrong turn off the trail.
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Unlike its previous installments, or most early aughts slashers, Wrong Turn isn't afraid of a losing your attention. Nelson is patient as he slowly builds the dread-filled atmosphere with Stephen Lukach's musical score. Even when after a giant log comes careening down the hill at the hikers sending them the clear signal that something is amiss, he allows the event to sink in and chill you. It feels more akin to a folk horror like The Descent or The Blair Witch Project.
It would be a disservice to spoil exactly what is going on in the woods, but the way that the screenplay retcons the original lore is effective and extremely entertaining, even if it's somewhat clunky in its execution. The second act can't meet the pure genre satisfaction of the first, but by the ending it's all worth it. When Wrong Turn doesn't try to have too much on its mind, it's a horror nut's dream movie filled with great scares, inventive kills, and just enough plot to stitch it all together. And its ending (and I truly mean the last 30 seconds) is so great that it'll leave you more than satisfied.
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Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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