OMM2024 - Night 17: Wrong Turn (2003)

 Let's goo! We're over the hump and into the back half of the month. #OctoberMovieMarathon

Night 17

Wrong Turn (2003)

7/10

A man on his way to Raleigh takes a detour down a dirt road to avoid the accident blocking the highway.

A surprise hit! I wasn't expecting to like this movie, but it's pretty fun! Not as gorey as the opening scene made me think it was going it be. A great movie for screaming at the characters: "Don't do that!" "No! Watch out!" and enjoying the shenanigans.

 

Usually I'm big on characters needing to be 3-dimensional. But in Wrong Turn everyone is just a person.  Maybe it's because they weren't just caricatures or stereotypes. There was just enough different about them to make it feel like someone, if not real, at least next door to it. You're not meant to really relate to the characters, they are vehicles for us to romp through the woods and get chased.

 

Do understand, this is NOT a comedy and truthfully there aren't any jokes in the film. It's not a "Dale and Tucker vs Evil" sort of feel and not a "so bad it's funny" movie, it's just a good time. More like a roller coaster- "danger" but you're really just screaming because that makes it more fun.

SPOILERS BELOW THE POSTER!

SPOILERS START HERE!

This movie also features a group of characters who are committing violence for no good reason, but unlike The Strangers, they're at least getting joy out of their hunt. They're eating people and... collecting some bones and such? It's not clear, but you at least get the sense that they've got their own internal logic. I also appreciate the movie not doing all the same scares as other movies. For instance, the bait and switch with the first guy going missing and the girl looking for him- and then the other couple do the "disappear to scare my friend" bit instead- and the girl gets attacked? Great subversion of expectations. I think the villains were well designed (if sometimes looking like they had a pillow under their shirts- I'm looking at you cannibal who got in the police car) and I appreciated all the little details in their house and car park.

The gore, which is something I'm sensitive too, was not too bad. It's mostly blood, and the few shots with body parts don't stick around past their need. I thought the opening showing a bit of blood was a hint that the movie was going to go way too far in showing injuries- but it didn't do that. And though the movie did end up using the trap of "cannibals save the girl because she's pretty/they want use her body" but it didn't go very far. Thank goodness. A lesser film would have used that as an opportunity to strip their female lead. This movie, was classier than that.