Wrong Turn 2: Dead End

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Wrong Turn 2: Dead End

October 18th 2007 05:11

I would’ve probably avoided this movie like the plague, well maybe not as rigorously and desperately as the plague, but I certainly wouldn’t have touched it with a barge pole, even though I enjoyed the first movie, Wrong Turn (2003), and actually own it. However a friend of mine, who’s taste in movies I generally agree with, recommended it.

Well, it seems I’ve discovered one of my friend’s guilty pleasures, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007). We all have our guilty pleasures, John Doe reckons Wrong Turn is one of my pleasures I should feel guilty about. The only thing I feel guilty about is wanting Eliza Dushku’s character to have been tied to the table buck naked (as she should’ve been). Ahem.

But I digress. Wrong Turn 2 is a fresh story set in the same ghastly, fetid, inbred hellhole that is the forests of West Virginia, just like the first movie. This time round a group of hapless twenty-somethings are competitors in a reality TV game show pilot, The Ultimate Survivalist, set in a mock-up “apocalyptic” setting (the backwoods of nowhere), trying to survive six days against the elements to win $100,000. Henry Rollins is the ex-marine colonel hosting the show.

Erica Leerhsen as our Final Girl Nina

Immediately things get off to a bad start. In the opening five minutes one of the six contestants, Kimberly (Kimberly Caldwell), running late, takes a wrong turn up toward an abandoned saw mill, knocks a deformed hillbilly over the top of her Ferrari, and when she tries to assist has the bottom part of her face bitten off by the sub-human. Scrambling for safety she runs into Three Finger (Jeff Scrutten), the maniacal inbred who survived the first film, who promptly splits her straight down the middle with his large axe. It’s a promising start to the movie.

I have two main gripes with this sequel, when compared to the first movie. Firstly, the actors performances aren’t as strong, except for perhaps Erica Leerhsen as Final Girl Nina (oops, sorry). The characters are much more stereotypical, which I can gather is a little bit tongue in cheek, but it makes for a less engaging narrative; there’s the troubled heroine, there’s the goofy obnoxious guy, there’s the goodie-two-shoes sports jock, there’s the sexy minx, there’s the naïve producer girlfriend to the opportunist hotshot director, there’s the staunch Amazonian beauty, and so on.

The director sets up his opening shot

My second, and more significant gripe is that the movie just ain’t that scary, not as chilling, or even as disturbing as the first movie. The inbreds in Wrong Turn 2 have been “humanised” and in doing so they become less threatening, and ultimately less scary. They aren’t as deformed or as monstrous looking. We see the hillbilly family and there’s a domestic scene reminiscent of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), but it lacks any of the truly grimy atmosphere and debilitating claustrophobia.

There’s a scene of brother and sister having sex in the wilderness, but we didn’t need to really see that, it actually came across as gratuitous, not in a graphic way, but in needless way, because we know they’re inbred because they fuck each other. If they raped the poor civilized folk, now that would be different, that would be effectively repulsive and disturbing, echoing the rape scene in Deliverance (1972), but instead the brother/sister shagging comes across as unintentionally funny.

Henry Rollins shows us how the real actors do it

Wrong Turn 2 is devoid of any consistency in tone. Sometimes it feels like a parody, other times, the tone is darker (but never dark enough for my liking). There’s some decent violence and gore, almost satirical in its execution; disemboweling, arrows to the body and head, axes to the body and head, barbed wire injuries, decapitation, a few bodies being blown apart, and a sensational sequence at movie’s end involving a huge wood shredder, yessss!

The eye candy is in spades (especially Erica Leerhsen and Crystal Lowe as minx Elena), but it doesn’t provide much satisfaction, more of a distraction. And, hey, it might have looked good on paper, but Henry Rollins can’t act his way out of a paper bag. He makes Keanu Reeves seem like a true thespian.

Pa is keen to feed the family ... with a little 'pork' stew

This straight-to-DVD release will certainly have its fans feature debut director Joe Lynch keeps it technically competent, fast-paced, more graphic and there’s more obvious humour, there’s also a neat tie-in with the Old Timer (Wayne Robson) from the first movie. But Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (with the word “unrated” in such big letters after the title, it actually appears to be part of the title) doesn’t have the dark tone of the first movie, nor the first movie’s atmosphere, or the first movie’s calibre of acting. For me, I demand more of the latter.

Here's the theatrical US trailer:

And if you really give a rat's arse, meet the contestants:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

20 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

October 18th 2007 07:47

Film & TV on DVD

"I will avoid this like the plague...exactly"

Comment by Damo

October 18th 2007 09:52

Not every horror film should have been made.

Comment by Cibbuano

October 18th 2007 23:20

Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

someone actually recommended this to me... they said it was surprisingly good, for a straight-to-DVD release..

Comment by Bryn

October 19th 2007 00:29

Horrorphile

JD ... well, yeah.
Damo, well, yup.
Cibby, well, therein lies the Rub. So many are released straight-to-DVD, there's that school of thought now, but it's a movie just like all the rest at the end of the day. We get crap at the movies, and we get decent movies straight-to-DVD ... we get great movies at the cinema, and utter shite dumped on the shelves ... Wrong Turn 2 has its moments, but it's not that great.

Comment by Cibbuano

October 19th 2007 04:15

Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

hmm.. well, I've got it, so I might as well watch it for the sleaze and the violence -right?

Comment by Bryn

October 20th 2007 02:28

Horrorphile

Cibby, yeah watch it for the mild sleaze and pretty decent gore, although still not as extreme as I wanted ... sheeesh, I'm gettin' demandingly twisted in my old age!

Comment by Anonymous

October 25th 2007 09:12

It's a pretty good movie. Wrong Turn 2 is definitely better than most horror movies that come out these days and it should've been released in theaters. You should check it out.

Comment by Bryn

October 26th 2007 03:55

Horrorphile

Anon, not quite sure watch you mean when you say "You should check it out". I did. This is my review.

Comment by Anonymous

November 20th 2007 04:46

Uh...

This review is B.S.

I saw this movie albeit reluctantly and was extremely impressed. I thought the kills were inventive. I also though they did a credible job of keeping you guessing who was going to get the axe (so to speak) next.

Oh, and by the way THANKS assmunch for dropping a half dozen spoilers in your review. You act as if the ORIGINAL Wrong Turn was friggin' Shakespeare. It was NOT. The caliber of acting in this sequel isn't nearly as bad as you describe. Henry Rollins does NOT suck. And overall, I actually liked this one better.

This was easily better than Halloween, Hills Have Eyes2, Hostel2, and most of the rest of the horror dreck put out this year.

Teenagers should NOT be allowed to review horror movies. JMFO

Comment by Anonymous

December 5th 2007 20:09

Um..yeah. After seeing Wrong Turn, I knew as soon as the second one came out I would HAVE to see it. Well, yesterday, on my birthday, I rented Wrong Turn 2 with my mother. Come to find out, this movie is the goriest movie I have ever seen! I have seen a LOT of scary movies in my life..they're my passion..but this one just make we want to get sick. I can't say that it was good, and I can't say that it was bad, but if you have a weak stomach or even if you're like me and you really don't, watch out when you watch this movie.

Comment by Anonymous

December 5th 2007 20:10

Uh..yeah the two inbred brother and sister fucking was definitely something I did NOT want to see! and that baby that was born? WTF..that was just messed up.

Comment by Bryn

December 5th 2007 22:01

Horrorphile

Anon (Dec. 5) ... I gather you haven't seen that many hardcore horror movies, if you think Wrong Turn 2 is the goriest movie you've ever seen ... You claim to have seen "a LOT" of scary movies ... good to know. But this ain't one of them, nor is it the sickest. There are some seriously twisted avenues you can go down if you have the stomach ... Have you seen any Takashi Miike films?

Comment by Anonymous

January 26th 2008 01:15

It was a pretty good movie, I've seen better. In the first one, you still get a little nervous about what's going to happen next even though you know it's coming. However, after watching the second one twice you kind of get desensitized. The acting is not too shabby, there were a few things that bugged me though. For one when dale got ambushed by three finger and pa, a real marine would have been aware of the fact that pa is behind him and closing in fast. Also, in one of the last scenes when he gets shot by pa a real marine wouldn't just stand there and say "is that all you got bitch?!" Instead he would've charged him or throw the knife (that was at his hip). The pit that Nina fell in should have been filled with spikes.

Comment by Anonymous

February 10th 2008 10:58

Your text goes hereit is not veryy horror but it has the most uglyest scenes i ever seend !!!1

Comment by Anonymous

April 14th 2008 19:48

The movie was awesome. I love horror movies and this one was fairly cool. It's slightly better then the first one, mostly because of the hardcore gore. I watched it for the first time last night before going to bed and I was actually on the edge of my bed throughout the whole movie. that never happens with me. Finally something worth my interest. I like a lot of movies but this one tops it all.