Wrong Turn (2021) — A Review

8th March, 2021.

Right … 

This is possibly getting to be a habit.

Watching something: then starting a post, that’s going to be finished later.

Yes: I’ve seen a movie, tonight.

Yes: I’m going to finish this post, tomorrow night.

And yes: I finally made up my mind: to watch the 2021 version of Wrong Turn.

~≈Ç≈~

Wrong Turn (2021) opens with Scott (Matthew Modine) arriving in an unnamed town on the Appalachian Trail, in Virginia.

He’s looking for his daughter, Jen (Charlotte Vega): who’s gone hiking on the trail, with her boyfriend, Darius (Adain Bradley), and four of their friends.

And not getting much help from the uncooperative locals.

The scene shifts: to six weeks earlier.

Jen and Darius and their friends — Adam, Milla, Gary and Luis (Dylan McTee, Emma Dumont, Vardaan Arora and Adrian Favela) — are heading for the same small town in Virginia.

The group are intent on parking their car, and starting a hike on the Trail.

It’s only while they’re organising their gear in a local hotel?

That Jen gets a warning from the owner: “Keep to the marked trail.   The land here can be … unforgiving … ”

Something that only makes sense when the group are in the hills of the trail, and Darius persuades them to go off course.

That’s something that gets the group lost.

Gets Gary killed by a log … gets Adam dragged into a hole … and sees Milla, spiked.

Do you think they should have paid attention to the warnings … ?

~≈Ç≈~

Now … what did I make of Wrong Turn?

Did I see horror at the peak of its form: a film that’s well acted, written, directed … ?

Did I see a good film?

Hmm … 

Right now, in the cold light of a computer screen, some twenty-four hours after finishing the thing?

I’m tempted to say ‘No.’

Yes, Wrong Turn is:

• Well shot.
• Well acted.
• Well edited.

But?

The flaw that seems to let the thing down?   It’s that the film seems confused: Wrong Turn seems to start as a Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Cabin the Woods sort of movie: with touches of Deliverance thrown in.

But seems to want to be a bloodier version of The Wicker Man, or Midsommar.

And I’m not sure that that makes Wrong Turn work.

As well made and acted it is?

I think Wrong Turn needed a lot of tidying up at the scripting stage.

From where I’m sitting?

Wrong Turn is something of a mess.

Wrong Turn.

★☆☆☆