Wrong Turn (I) (2003)

Six people find themselves trapped in the woods of West Virginia, hunted down by "cannibalistic mountain men grossly disfigured through generations of in-breeding."

Director:

Rob Schmidt

Writer:

Alan B. McElroy

Stars:

Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku, Emmanuelle Chriqui

3 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Desmond Harrington	...	Chris Flynn
Eliza Dushku	...	Jessie Burlingame
Emmanuelle Chriqui	...	Carly
Jeremy Sisto	...	Scott
Kevin Zegers	...	Evan
Lindy Booth	...	Francine
Julian Richings	...	Three Finger
Garry Robbins	...	Saw-Tooth
Ted Clark	...	One-Eye
Yvonne Gaudry	...	Halley
Joel Harris	...	Rich
David Huband	...	Trooper
Wayne Robson	...	Old Man
James Downing	...	Trucker

Storyline

Chris Flynn is driving his car for a job interview in another city. However, an accident with a trunk transporting chemical products blocks the highway and Chris looks for an alternative route through the mountains of West Virginia to accomplish his schedule. Due to a lack of attention, he crashes another car parked in the middle of the road with flat tires. Chris meets a group of five friends, who intended to camp in the forest, and they decide to leave the couple Francine and Evan on the place, while Chris, Jessie, Carly and her fiancé Scott tries to find some help. They find a weird cabin in the middle of nowhere, where three violent cannibalistic mountain men with the appearance of monsters live. The two couples try to escape from the mountain men while chased by them.

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Plot Keywords:

west virginia | woods | group of friends | wrong turn | forest | 

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Taglines:

It's the last one you'll ever take.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and gore, some language and drug use

Details

Official Sites:

West Video [Russia]

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 May 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Camino hacia el terror

Filming Locations:

Dundas, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$327,192 (Brazil) (5 March 2004)

Gross:

$656,153 (Brazil) (26 March 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Summit Entertainment, Constantin Film Produktion, Media Cooperation One

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the four are running from the cabin after awakening the mountain men, Desmond Harrington broke his right ankle after landing on the opposite side of a log. This made it very difficult to shoot some of the scenes after his left leg is "shot" and he has to limp on his right leg.

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Goofs

During the pre-crash scenes of the Mustang's windshield, the driver's windshield wiper changes both in type (factory and aftermarket) and color (silver v. black), switching back-and-forth in quick succession.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rich: Whoo! Whoo-hoo! Oh, yeah!
Halley: OK, you're great. You got the line?

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Crazy Credits

There's an additional scene halfway through the end credits, showing the fate of a state trooper who discovers a body in the burned-down cabin.

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Connections

Featured in Stan Winston: Monster Mogul (2003)

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Soundtracks

"The High Cost of Low Living"
Written by Scott Nickoley and Jamie Dunlap
Courtesy of MasterSource

User Reviews

What's worse than a leather-faced madman chasing you through the bush with a chainsaw? How about three!!

What's worse than a leather-faced madman chasing you through the bush with a chainsaw? How about three!!

`Wrong Turn' stars Desmond Harrington as Chris Finn, a man who is late for a very important interview. Finn takes a back country road to avoid a traffic jam and ends up involved in a car accident with three debutantes (Eliza Dushku, Lindy Booth and Emmanuelle Chriqui) and their boyfriends (Jeremy Sisto and Kevin Zegers). The group splits up as they try to find some help. Unbeknownst to them, they are being stalked by an unspeakable horror. Living in the woods around the crash is a family of cannibalistic mountain men who are overtly grotesque from generations of incest. Before the group knows it, they are in a fight for their very lives.

`Wrong Turn' was in one word an utter shock to the system. There hasn't been a film this gory, grotesque and chilling in a very long time. Not since the 1970's `Texas Chainsaw Massacre' has a horror film such as this been made. The best way to describe the experience is that if you took 2001's `Joy Ride' and `Jeepers Creepers' added 1972's `Deliverance' then threw them all in a blender. You may come up with `Wrong Turn'.

The tension in this film is harrowing and relentless as it bats you back and forth. You are exhausted and maybe even queasy when you come out of the theatre. But if you love horror films then you probably have an ear to ear grin as well.

I really liked some of the early editing of this film by director Rob Schmidt, who allows the scares and shocks to come with brilliant accuracy. I also liked how Schmidt barely shows the mountain men throughout the film. The parts we do see are horrific but the filmmaker relies heavily on the chase and shock than on the gore. Schmidt could have easily dived down the gore shoot to hell but he made a wise choice that works in spades.

It's the film's harrowing tension and atmospheric pursuit that overshadows the young stars that make up the cast. Dushku is strong and emulates some of her `Buffy the Vampire Slayer' character, Faith in her portrayal here. Dushku loves to play debutantes with edge and her character here has a lot of it. I wasn't extremely familiar with Desmond Harrington before this film but he plays a good leading man. The rest of the cast play typical generic 20-somethings from the horror film franchises of old. I have always liked Lindy Booth but she has nothing to play with here and the same is goes for Jeremy Sisto. But come on, this isn't exactly an intelligently written and detailed drama.

I liked `Wrong Turn' purely because of its shock value and its no holds barred return to classic horror. It is always in your face and it doesn't let go till the credits. This film isn't for the faint of heart. What a rush! (3.5 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.