Title – Wrong Turn (2021)

Director – Mike P. Nelson (The Domestics)

Cast – Charlotte Vega, Adain Bradley, Bill Sage, Matthew Modine

Plot – A group of young friends hiking the American Appalachian Trail find themselves lost in the deep woods and under threat from a potentially bloodthirsty group of locals.

“This land is their land”

Review by Eddie on 05/03/2021

In an era of random remakes, re-imagining’s and reboots, one of the last series that I would’ve had pegged down for a freshly minted jumping off point is 2003’s horror outing Wrong Turn.

A decent enough if instantly forgettable gore-filled outing, the mid-tier early 2000’s hit had managed to spawn five other films in the Wrong Turn catalogue that now becomes a sixth with Mike P. Nelson’s reboot of the series (known as Wrong Turn: The Foundation in some territories) coming our way to introduce a whole new audience to the world of backwood’s murder and horror because you know, its a bit too hard to come up with a whole new horror film these days.

A lazy and almost instantly unlikable picture, one where you wonder if you’re actually supposed too care if the main characters die and one where you will constantly be yelling at the screen trying to give characters advice in light of their increasingly poor choices and actions, Wrong Turn is neither scary enough, inventive enough or smart enough to recommend as the film ticks off a series of genre-related boxes that will have even the most forgiving of horror hounds finding a reason to recommend this unneeded series entry a hard prospect to achieve.

Filled with a bunch of stereotypical mid-20 year olds that get lost in the deep dark woods on a seemingly pleasant hike along the Appalachian Trail only to (who would’ve guessed it?) find their dreams of country life interrupted by some unfriendly locals and some conveniently located traps that seem to be waiting at any corner of the forest our gang find themselves wondering around.

Those seeking bountiful gore and redneck cannibals such as were found in original Wrong Turn outings will be as disappointed as Matthew Modine must be with his current career trajectory, as Nelson’s film forgoes these series staples for some odd new angles that seem to have sprung up out of folky horror’s like Midsommar as Charlotte Vega’s kind-hearted Jennifer and her more annoying friends begin to understand more about the people that roam the uncivilised woods they have wandered into.

You never expect anything grand from a film such as Wrong Turn, with films like this needing to be watched with expectations in cheque and brain switched off but we deserve more as an audience than what Wrong Turn provides and as a marketed horror event, this fails in almost all key areas in a marketplace that is filled with far better ways to spend near two hours of your time.

Final Say – 

A scare-free and unimaginative horror outing that fails to justify why it needed to reboot a series that was never that great to begin with, Wrong Turn is a poor way to start off 2021’s horror offerings and a glaring reason why this franchise should remain dormant from here on out.

1 rampaging log out of 5