Review by Chris Rennirt
“Out there, nature eats everything it catches…right down to the bone. It doesn’t give a shit if it’s a cute girl or not.”
Yes! Nature “eats” cute girls too; it’s a sure thing. But, is everything so sure in Wrong Turn (2021)? Could people (a whole community of them) really hide in the Appalachian backcountry, ultimately killing and imprisoning countless tourists for over 160 years, without being discovered, if not hunted, by authorities? I guess it’s about as likely as the legendary Sasquatch doing the same? Perhaps the existence of Sasquatch is even more likely, since they aren’t taking college kids, with parents looking for answers, if not searching for the beast themselves. If you can put such questions out of your otherwise logical mind for 110 minutes, you may do more than enjoy Wrong Turn (2021); you may also find something more socially relevant and meaningful than anything found in most horror films today.
Matthew Modine is the father looking for his missing daughter.
The first thing right about Wrong Turn (2021) is its departure from the franchise’s previous theme of degenerate, inbreeding cannibals, onward to something fresh; in all six of the preceding films, the source of horror was long ago a tired cliché, and this film has no connection to that. The latest film reimagines the villains of the story, also reinventing the group of hapless, twenty-something college students (albeit not without their predictable fate as victims).
Wrong Turn (2021) takes full advantage of Appalachia’s natural production values.
The debut of the series, back in 2003, was a good film as far as those of its type go. It was the typical gang of young people, also on a break from college, in a cat and mouse game with hillbilly mutants, with slick death scenes providing most of its payload. It was also a showcase for the film’s beautiful star Eliza Dushku (looking just as glamorous in every harrowing scene), along with the usual good-looking, drinking, weed smoking, sex-on-the-brain extras, with little else to define them. Even with its shallow content and foreseeable outcomes, Wrong Turn (2003) checked all the boxes for fans of the genre.
Wrong Turn‘s rebooted group of ill-fated coeds, off the main trail…and into danger!
This time, those in peril feature a more equitable swath of politically-correct coeds. There’s an interracial couple (Charlotte Vega and Adain Bradley), a gay couple (Vardaan Arora and Adrian Favela), and a white couple (Emma Dumont and Dylan McTee). The characters (NOT because of their sexual orientation or racial mix) add something else arguably right about Wrong Turn (2021)–its focus on ultimately nontraditional monsters. The crew of millennials here is less than likeable from the start, for reasons other than the usual. Cruel, bigoted comments are spewed with hateful tones and overt bias, before even a reason to be offended has occurred. “I fuckin’ warned you about these white-trash hillbillies,” says one of them. For them, racism and white supremacy are the go-to terms for everything seen in a place like rural Virginia. “How could anyone there not be a racist?” they think. “This is quaint,” one says. “Yeah, especially if you miss the good ole days of the confederacy,” responds another.
A happy Jenn (Charlotte Vega), before the horrors of Wrong Turn (2021)
It is exactly this that had me, at first, thinking, “Oh no! Not another movie with a political agenda, infiltrated with bias, controlled by mainstream media and “Big Tech,” preaching stereotypes about certain people and places. While it does include political/social content, it presents it in a most ironic, unexpected way, certainly novel in a horror film. Instead of the usual, it explores the brutality of our assumptions, in a fair and balanced way, asking, “Who are the monsters, really?” It speaks volumes about young people cultivated with a college education, ironically still devoid of intelligent, objective analysis and empathy. (And I loved the buried, although definitely present commentary, as a total opposite of what’s expected.) As screenwriter Alan B. McElroy explains (on the movie’s behind-the-scenes featurette), it’s about “how the idea of Wrong Turn could mean something in today’s culture…how we treat one another, what we expect from one another, and dealing with the repercussions of our choices.” And, as director Mike P. Nelson adds, “You have movies like Friday the 13th where you do drugs, you have sex, you do bad things, you get killed by Jason, right? In this one, there’s a different sort of horror motivation, which [is if] you want to judge people, [and if] you want to stereotype people, that’s what’s gonna get you killed.”
Luis (Adrian Favela) finds comfort on the shoulder of his boyfriend, Gary (Vardaan Arora).
And, along with the intellectual content, getting killed is exactly what happens to a lot of people in Wrong Turn (2021). As soon as the old woman with a southern accent warns the coeds to stay on the marked trail, we know exactly what they’re going to do. Yes, how could horror movie characters ever become victims, if they followed the rules? But, for god sakes, can’t it somehow be less obvious…at least occasionally? Maybe just not including the clichéd warning would have been better.
A tense moment between Milla (Emma Dumont) and her boyfriend Adam (Dylan McTee)
Speaking of characters, the protagonist, Jen (Charlotte Vega), is another of the new-age women, akin to ALIEN’s Ellen Ripley, needing no man to protect her…ultimately. With Vega’s powerful performance, Jen’s metamorphosis of character, essential to the movie’s plot, is natural and convincing…although, as a scripted element, I saw it coming. Even with predictability there, Wrong Turn (2021) never, until the movie’s last minutes, reveals who will prevail. Just when you think you know the story, you don’t. And, before you curse me for giving away a spoiler, check your biased assumptions.
Jen (Charlotte Vega), Adam (Dylan McTee), and Luis (Adrian Favela) in Wrong Turn (2021)
Matthew Modine plays the part of Jen’s father Scott, desperately searching for his lost daughter. As the exemplary, loving dad, he’ll do anything to find his daughter, never giving up hope (and another cliché that would be, if human nature was not a cliché itself). With Modine’s character, a parallel story is added, with more social commentary possible. Scott is married to a strikingly-younger woman, easily young enough to be his granddaughter. With the movie’s diversity of couples otherwise, this one left me scratching my head…wondering.
Things get a lot worse (AND BLOODY) fast, in Wrong Turn (2021)!
Gore? Never fear! Wrong Turn (2021) leaves nothing to want. Heads are crushed, faces are blown off (and what a waste of a beautiful girl that is!), bodies are impaled, and eyes are gouged out, with little left to imagine. What’s better is that the camera often lingers, even taking you back for a second look! While some scenes begin off camera, adding suspense, the payoff is always visual. A particular scene with Scott’s twenty-something wife, Corrine (Valerie Jane Parker) is a WTF moment worth multiple viewings. (The pitch-black humor is hilarious…if you like that sort of thing.) It takes the prize for “Best Eye Rolling Scene” in horror!
Luis (Adrian Favela) wishing he’d taken the “right” turn instead.
As for the movie’s end, I have never seen another like it. The uniqueness of it alone is worth the time watching the whole movie. As the director describes, they originally shot an alternate ending, but, afterward liked the alternate so much that they decided to make it the real ending (continuing beyond the original ending to do so). Oddly, but most interestingly, the credits begin before the movie is over, during major action of the film…with those final moments perhaps the best. If ever there was a movie with a story continuing beyond the movie’s end, beyond the screen, this is it. As the camera fades to black, we already want a sequel.
Will Jen (Charlotte Vega) and Darius (Adain Bradley) survive Wrong Turn (2021)?
In the end (the actual end, that is), the questions that linger have more philosophical meaning than most mainstream horror films ever attempt. Who is really the monster, and whose world is more barbaric? If not worse, are we perhaps just as brutal ourselves, only too arrogant, too biased to admit it? Questions like these make Wrong Turn (2021), surprisingly, one of the more intelligent, thought-provoking, socially-relevant horror films I’ve seen this year. While implausible at times, it makes us realize again, in the end, something important: Monsters are determined by those who define them, as much as monsters are those who define. With this, every turn is a Wrong Turn, and the 2021 reboot, even with its fiction, is anything but just a movie. As the poster says, “We still haven’t learned.”
Rocket Rating – 7
Chris Rennirt (the author of this review) is a movie critic and writer in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as editor in chief at Space Jockey Reviews. He has been a judge at many film festivals, including Macabre Faire Film Festival and Crimson Screen Film Fest, and he attends horror and sci-fi conventions often. Chris’ movie reviews, articles, and interviews are published regularly on Space Jockey Reviews and in Effective Magazine. His mission statement (describing his goals as a movie critic and philosophy for review writing) can be found on the “Mission” page, here at SJR. For more information about Chris Rennirt (including contact details, publicity photos, and more), click here.
You may also like these!
