Wrong Turn Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Wrong Turn Blu-ray Movie Review

Take me home, country road, to the place, where I’ll be lunch…

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater September 16, 2009

Okay, so what do you call the thin line between intelligence and stupidity? Punchline in three…two… one…the Potomac River. Sorry, that’s an old Marylander’s joke. I live on the “smart” side of the river, less than five minutes away from the West Virginian border. And really, there’s not much of a difference. They have a Wal-Mart, and we have a Wal-Mart. On either side you’ll see a preponderance of gummy, toothless mouths, tasteful tattoos of Looney Toons characters, and trucks adorned with both airbrushed coyotes and unfurled Confederate flags. You almost expect a pillowcase with cutout eyeholes stuffed conspicuously in every glove compartment. Redneck-ism knows no boundaries. But somehow, West Virginia has become the epicenter for cultural expectations about aberrant, backwoods behavior—you know, incest, bestiality, racism, NASCAR. Hollywood’s vision of Appalachia is one big horror film set, complete with dangling gourds in every work shed, dueling banjos on every porch, and killer inbred mutants slinking through hill and holler in half-unbuttoned overalls. Wrong Turn keeps up the charade, tossing a naïve group of city-folk into the wilds of West Virginia, where they’re stalked by slobbering local yokels.

Smile for the camera!

The film opens with the brutal, but only half-seen murder of a rock-climbing couple, letting us know up front that there’s something in the woods. A little mystery would be appreciated, but the subsequent credit sequence spells it all out for us with newspaper clippings about inbred mountain men and missing tourists. Mystery solved. When medical student Chris Flynn (Desmond Harrington) hits a traffic jam on the way to an important interview, he decides to take a dirt road that eventually reconnects with the highway some twenty miles south. This, of course, is the film’s wrong turn, and after he accidentally plows into a Range Rover belonging to a group of campers—disabling both vehicles—we can pretty much guess what’s going to happen. First, the group splits up—always a bad idea—and the two libidinous teens who wait at the car for help (i.e., have sex and smoke pot) are promptly garroted with razor wire. No spoiler here, and you’ll be glad they’re gone because, if the film has any virtue, it’s that it gets rid of the most annoying characters first. Chris and the remaining campers, including an engaged couple (Emmanuelle Chriqui and Jeremy Sisto) and newly heartbroken hottie Jessie (Eliza Dushku), go further into the woods looking for help. Because, it goes without saying, going further into the woods is the best course of action. They inevitably stumble upon a creepy hovel belonging to the mutant murderers, and when the inbred hicks come home to roost—after two fresh kills—our campers are discovered and flee for their lives. Cue one uninventive kill after another, stage a revenge sequence, and cut.

The film aspires to imitate the raw intensity of Vietnam-era reactionary horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Last House on the Left, but director Rob Schmidt is a few generations too late. When are we going to start seeing horror movies that comment on the troubles of our own milieu? The 1990s gave us plenty of wink-wink irony with the Scream series, and if you really stretch you can imagine the whole “torture-porn” horror genre of the early 00s as a reaction to terrorism, but horror has been stuck in a rut of remake, rehash, and recycle. The directors who made the 1970s the “glory days” of horror captured cultural lightening in a bottle, and as much as the current crop of creepshow helmers would like to recreate that feeling, it simply can’t be done. Wrong Turn tries, it really does, but it comes off like one of those sad painters you see in museums trying to replicate the works of the Renaissance masters. Why have some third-rate knock-off when you can have the original? The movie is as inbred as its monsters, the stillborn spawn of an unholy, three-way cinematic union of Deliverance, Texas Chainsaw, and The Hills Have Eyes. A much creepier portrayal of incest and mutation can be found in the infamous “Home” episode of The X- Files, which was notably banned from television for being so disturbing.

I understand that not every horror film has to be groundbreaking, but Wrong Turn isn’t even entertaining from a strictly genre perspective. These kinds of films are known for having one-note characters, and Wrong Turn is no exception. Characters aren’t developed here —they’re simply given a label and told to run and scream. The performances aren’t as tiring as they are in some low-budget horror offerings, but they don’t exactly stand out from the surrounding mediocrity either. Desmond Harrington wears a single expression throughout the film, and it’s hard to tell if he’s a.) thinking about his paycheck, or b.) just plain bored. Former vampire slayer Eliza Dushku is a little better, if only because she gets more scream-queen opportunities to emote. The three mutants—One-Eye, Three-Finger, and Saw-Tooth—are standard issue hillbilly monstrosities, and their murdering methods are decidedly less than original. Wrong Turn isn’t really worth anyone’s 84 minutes—there are so many better horror movies on Blu-ray—but even gorehounds will be disappointed by the film’s lack of viscera.

Wrong Turn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wrong Turn makes several on the long road to Blu-ray, eventually arriving at a detail- deficient 1080p/AVC encoded transfer that's blurry and bland. If there's one positive thing I can say about the image it's that it doesn't revel in the shiny excess of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. Other than that, if the notes I took on the transfer were arranged into a pros vs. cons list, the pros column would be conspicuously empty. The first thing you'll notice is that the image is incredibly soft, not just in longer shots—like the fuzzy landscapes—but even in medium shots and certain close-ups. The telltale signs of DNR are all over the place, from smeary, indistinct facial textures, to the lack of any natural looking grain structure. If this film really wants to ape the feel of 1970s horror, where's the grit? After watching Wolverine yesterday and popping this disc in, I felt like I traded my brand new contacts for the glasses I wore when I was twelve. Detail is sorely lacking—note how the branches in the forest lack defined edges—and the overall clarity is well below average for a high definition title. The transfer's color rendition is similarly dull. Hues that should be rich and stable, like the forest greens or Chris' blue shirt, are weak and wishy-washy. Black levels too have issues, sometimes crushing shadow detail, sometimes seeming washed-out, and occasionally accomplishing both simultaneously. I don't have a DVD copy on hand to make a proper comparison, but I can't image that Wrong Turn looks much better on Blu-ray.

Wrong Turn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

On the other hand, Wrong Turn pulls a U-turn in the audio department and delivers a solid DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Sure, the film doesn't sound as bombastic or finely detailed as some bigger budgeted productions, but compared to the lackluster visual presentation, Wrong Turn's audio is positively sparkling. Appropriate for a film set deep in the Appalachian mountains, the surround channels are constantly engaged with woodsy ambience. Cicadas seethe in the trees, wind rustles the leaves, and birds chirp from all corners of the soundfield. Discrete effects can be a bit heavy handed, but you'll hear cars ripping through the rears, gunshots pinging, and even an explosion rippling out with a nice front-to-back transition. Foley sounds are satisfyingly grisly—a hatchet hacking through spinal cord, a rusty saw inching through bone—and the dialogue cuts through the mix without too much trouble. While the music is largely forgettable—I can only take so many stabbing jump scares—the film does boast a surprising low-end presence, as the LFE channel rumbles frequently into action. All things considered, Wrong Turn's audio is the highlight of this Blu-ray package.

Wrong Turn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Commentary by Rob Schmidt, Eliza Dushku, and Desmond Harrington
Director Schmidt and his two lead actors sit down for a breezy, laugh-filled commentary that, for most, will be more entertaining than the film itself. Dushku put fingernails to my mental chalkboard with one too many "um, like" style remarks, but if you're a fan of the film, you'll appreciate the loose but informative tone of this track.

Deleted Scenes (SD, 7:00 total)
There are three scenes here—a totally unnecessary make-out sequence, a very slightly extended kill scene, and repetitive dailies from the one of the kills.

Fresh Meat: The Wounds of Wrong Turn (SD, 9:25)
The director talks about how he wanted to create a totally straightforward horror film, where you meet the characters and then you watch them die. Uh, mission accomplished, I guess? Producer Stan Winston then gives an overview of the mutants in the film and leads us through some of the film's kills.

Featurette: Making of Wrong Turn (SD, 4:03)
There's really nothing about the "making of" Wrong Turn in this by-the-books EPK promo piece. If you've seen the film, there's nothing new here.

Eliza Dushku: Babe in the Woods (SD, 3:42)
This is a joke, right? Both director Rob Schmidt and Eliza Dushku talk about the depth of her character and the arc that she goes through—really? Were we watching the same film?

Stan Winston Featurette (SD, 4:40)
This is a brief tribute to the influential effects guru, but Winston himself does most of the talking, giving an overview of his career and discussing his newfound love of producing.

Trailer (SD, 2:14)

Wrong Turn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ah, West Virginia, home of the Mothman. Someday you'll get the cinematic break that you deserve. Wrong Turn certainly isn't it. A dim reflection of much better horror movies, the film comes to Blu-ray with an unimpressive transfer and a meager sampling of bonus features. If you absolutely must have the film, I'd hold off for the box set that's being released later this year.