My Review of Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort (2014)

 

Written by Frank H. Woodward

Directed by Valeri Mile

Toni: "Just stop, Danny, this isn't you!"

Danny: "No. It's family."

Remember that sequel/reboot from Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Alexandra Daddario. Yeah, this movie was fairly reminiscent of that. It's the first of two (failed) attempts to breathe new life into this franchise.

Yet again you've got Three Finger (Radoslav Parvanov), Saw Tooth (Danko Jordanov) and One Eye (Asen Asenov) causing trouble and killing a couple. Of course this was another movie where there would be other family to assume a normal visage to outside.

The family being brother and sister duo Jackson (Chris Jarvis) and Sally (Sadie Katz). Yes, they're an incestrous couple and their main interest was reuniting with a long lost family member. The member being actual protagonist of the piece, Danny (Anthony Ilett). 

I'll give this movie points for Danny. He's a former investor who had a meltdown, lost a ton of money and clients and seemed desperate to connect with his new found family. He's largely presented as a good guy until the last moment where he turned on his unfortunate girlfriend, Toni (Aqueela Zoll). I guess family really does outrank friends and lovers here.

As for the rest of the cannon fodder, there was greedy Jillian (Roxanne Pallett), her boyfriend Bryan (Joe Gaminara), stoner Charlie (Harry Belcher) and Toni's brother, Rod (Billy Ashworth). Again, they're there to be cannon fodder but also to question Danny's choices (though not very effectively) and that's basically it. 

- There was a real life court case surrounding this movie's misuse of a picture of a real life missing person from Wexford, Ireland. 

- Radoslav Parvanov who played One Eye in this movie played Three Finger in previous movie.

- The missing posters also had Zac Efron and a character from Pretty Little Liars. 

- Chronology: The resort of the piece was established in 1902 in one scene but 1926 in another. It seemed very present day, setting wise in West Virginia.

Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort probably should've been the death of this franchise because this was a very piss poor attempt of a reboot. Going forward, more care needs to be put in these protagonists going forward, though Danny did a show some promise.

Rating: 4 out of 10 

My Review of Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines (2012)

 

Written And Directed by Declan O'Brien 

Maynard: "Run, little girl. I'm coming to get you."

Yup as this series has churned out more movies, the quality has continued to dip and here's another entry that definitely ups the mean spirited antics even more. This one kind of surpassed itself in that regard.

Once again, we've got Three Finger (Borislav Iliev), Saw Tooth (George Karlukovski) and One Eye (Radoslav Parvanov) back to terrorise another friendship group. To make things moderately interesting, you've got their grandfather, Maynard (Doug Bradley). I said moderately btw.

Maynard might not be rabid like his grandsons but he's certainly a vindictive man who spent this movie delighting in toying with the unfortunate group of people time around. In particular, the way he went after "final girl" Lita (Roxanne McKee) and Sherriff Angela (Camilla Arfwedson) was rather nasty.

I suppose I should talk about the rest of the characters in this movie. I mean there's characters such as Billy (Simon Ginty), Gus (Paul Luebke), Julian (Oliver Hoare) and Cruz (Amy Lennox). They're not awful but they are subjected to some very awful deaths at the hands of the hillbilly family here.

The closest to any other character getting screentime was Mose (Duncan Wiseby) but it's not much to brag about. Even the final girl of the piece didn't exactly get the chance to have a proper heroic moment, especially given that ending.

- Borislav Iliev actually reprised the role of Three Finger, having played the character in the third movie.

- Finn Jones popped up briefly as a radio DJ who didn't believe that Angela and company were in danger.

- If you're a fan of the Hellraiser series, there's some nice references to it here. 

- Chronology: Months after the events of the previous movie. There's a Halloween setting for this one.

Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines continued the creative slump with these movies. Yes, some of the kills are inventive but with more poorly drawn out victims, it gets harder to care. Also it wouldn't kill to have some survivors who don't end up like Lita.

Rating: 4 out of 10 

My Review of Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011)

 

Written And Directed by Declan O'Brien

Kyle (re Daniel): "They're eating him like some fucked up fondue."

I think it's from this point where the rot kind of began to set in with this franchise. Going down a prequel route, I guess it was a way to bring back the still not developed Three Finger (Sean Skene) but other than that, it doesn't feel like a prequel.

The opening flashback of course does provide some context for Three Finger, Saw Tooth (Scott Johnson) and One Eye (Daniel Skene). They're in the Glenville Sanatorium and it wasn't long before they got loose, killed a bunch of staff members and took over said asylum.

Cut to 29 years later and you've got the latest group of young adults who clearly didn't research their choice of hang out properly. Yes, this bunch are stupid enough to set up camp in the asylum during a snowstorm. I'll admit that I liked the wintry setting for this movie.

As for the cannon fodder in question, there was a whole bunch of them named Kenia (Jenny Pudavick), Jenna (Terra Vnesa), Vincent (Sean Skene), Sara (Tenika Davis), Bridget (Kaitlyn Wong), Kyle (Victoe Zinck Jr), Claire (Samantha Kendrick), Daniel (Dean Armstrong) and Lauren (Ali Tataryn). It's a very bloated cast.

It also doesn't help that none of them are particularly well developed or have much to make them stand out. Anyways, they're trapped in the asylum and get picked off sequentially by the hillbilly family. Kyle has the bright idea of killing them and it's an idea he should've been allowed to follow through with.

The downside was that everyone died, including the few who got out of the asylum and nearly stood a chance of being saved. Yeah, there's an increasing sense of nihilism with this franchise and this one certainly ended on a downbeat note.

- The movie was the first in the franchise to have a lesbian couple but even there's an annoying emphasis on how a male character views them.

- Some of the actors played two roles each, notably Sean Skene. I do find it amusing that every film has a different actor for Three Finger.

- The snow was real, they shot it in Canada and Declan O'Brien even gave himself a cameo.

- Chronology: West Virginia, mostly in the sanitarium in both 1974 and 2003. Even the main action is set before the events of the first movie.

Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings could've won me over with the wintry setting but honestly, I felt cold towards this one. Too many characters and just dreary for most of the time. It's definitely the start of a decline with this franchise.

Rating: 4 out of 10

My Review of Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead (2009)

 

Written by Connor James Delaney

Directed by Declan O'Brien

Alex (re Three Finger): "He eats people. We're his food."

Maybe I've misjudged this franchise a little because while it's still got a massive problem in actually developing it's hillbilly antagonists, it's sort of mixing it up a bit with it's protagonists. A mix up I appreciated here.

The movie opened with a friend group, consisting of Alex (Janet Montgomery), Brent (Charley Speed), Trey (Jack Gordan) and Sophie (Louise Cliffe). Within the first five minutes, they're murdered brutally by Three Finger (Borislav Iliev), with the frightened Alex benched until the second half of the movie.

Anyways, you'd assume that Alex was supposed to be the protagonist of the piece but the main hero this time around turned out to be nice guy cop, Nate Wilson (Tom Frederic). Along with fellow officer, Walter (Chucky Venn), both men are tasked with transferring criminals to another prison. 

Predictably enough, it went wrong and the main criminal in question, Carlo Chavez (Tamer Hassan) along with Floyd (Gil Korilin), Crawford (Jake Curran) and Brandon (Tom McKay) took both Nate and Walter captive while also trying to escape. Oh and there was a scheming involving a lot of money that didn't bring out the good in anyone.

On top of that, the inclusion of Alex in the second also brought the hillbillies out of hiding and it became a fight for survival against them and the criminals. Fortunately for Nate, he had both Alex and Brandon on his side. Unfortunately for Nate, at least one of them betrayed him after they survived their hillbilly encounter.

While it's not unusual to kill off the main hero in a horror movie, this was one time I wished they didn't. I did like Nate a lot more than previous protagonists in the franchise and we definitely need more Final Boys in the genre. However, at least there were some strong kills in this one.

- The film had the most kills but the least amount of mutants and it was Nate who killed Three Finger. 

- Despite being release in 2009, the film has been made two years prior to that.

- Declan O'Brien didn't write this one but he does the next two as well as directing them.

- Chronology: Not long from the second movie and again, set within West Virginia.

Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead certainly changed up the type of protagonist we've had compared to the first two movies and seemed to be a more male leaning compared to the first two movies. The ending somewhat dropped the ball but it's a better movie than I expected it to be. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)

 

Written by Turi Meyer And Al Septien

Directed by Joe Lynch

Jake: "Nice ride. You want to take it for a spin?"

Nina: "Why not? It's the least this fucked up family owes us."

In a surprise move, you've got a first sequel that might be somewhat better than the first movie. Don't get me wrong, this still ain't a great franchise but there's a degree put behind the characters this time that the first movie didn't necessarily going for it.

It's also funny because taking a leaf out of Halloween: Resurrection, this movie decided to down the reality TV route with a Survivor influenced show focusing on six celebs being put through their paces by Colonel Dale Murphy (Henry Rollins). Surprisingly, he's a far better character than expected.

Anyways the contestants in question included Kimberly Caldwell (as herself), former football player Jake Washington (Texas Battle), lesbian war vet Amber Williams (Daniella Alonso), skateboarder Matt Jones (Steve Braun), lingerie model Elena (Crystal Garcia) and graphic artist Nina Paps (Erica Leerhsen). Of course, Kimberly's an open kill and got quickly replaced by the similarly unfortunate Mara Stone (Aleksa Palladino).

With these characters, there's something of an effort to try and make them a bit more dimensional and it mostly. Except for Elena, who really was just vacuous and fame hungry but the rest, there's that effort, so I have to give the movie it's due on that front.

It's also interesting the pairing choices. The somewhat immature Matt being paired with the more serious Amber as he comes to respect both her and the fact that she's a lesbian. Then there's the romantic undertones between Nina and Jake as the two of them bonded over tragedy while Dale himself seemed to actually care about the contestants lives to the point where he endangered his own to save them.

Even the inbred hillbillies in this one seemed to have a bit more going for them as characters. They were still picking off the contestants, one by one but there was an effort to explore their disturbed family dynamics. In particular, the creepy Ma (Ashlea), Pa (Ken Kirzinger), Brother (Clint Carleton) and Sister (Rorelee Tio), who were the main threat in this one.

- Three Finger was played by Jeff Scrutton this time while Patton Oswald had a voice cameo.

- Adding to the disturbed scenes, we had that hillbilly baby sucking on a human finger while being bottle fed toxic sludge.

- Original ideas included using both Jessie and Chris from the first movie as well as having Eliza Dushku play herself for the opening kill.

- Chronology: Still set in West Virginia and not long after the events of the first movie.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End does show that when there's more effort on character, you can get a pretty decent sequel. That's the film's biggest strength, and even the reality TV idea was better handled. I liked this one.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Wrong Turn (2003)

 

Written by Alan B. McElroy 

Directed by Rob Schmidt 

Scott: "We are never going into the woods again."

A few years ago, I watched, reviewed and generally did not care for the reboot movie. I'm not going to lie and say that this is a franchise I hold a lot of reverence for either but I'm going to watch the remaining movies and try to be as fair as possible.

I mean for a first entry, this was actually a pretty good start with enough familiar faces and a premise that mostly lifted from both Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It also contained a cast of people from some popular shows and movies at the time, including one actor that I really miss seeing in things these days.

The protagonists of the piece included a friends group. This comprised of engaged couples Scott (Jeremy Sisto) and Carly (Emmanuelle Chriqui), other couple Evan (Keven Zegers) and Francine (Lindy Booth) and the recently dumped, Jessie (Eliza Dushku). As characters, they're fairly by the numbers and fresh victims for the terror of their new surroundings.

Add into the mix a man named Chris Flynn (Desmond Harrington), whom the friend group crashed into and you've got six characters ripe for the picking. One by one as they try to get help, they find themselves being hunted and picked by a group of feral cannibals. 

The villains then of the piece were the likes of Odets, which included Three-Fingers (Julian Richings), Saw-Tooth (Garry Robbins) and One-Eye (Ted Clark). They're not greatly developed characters but their lack of development doesn't get in the way of their ability to cause maximum damage to our protagonists as Jessie and Chris are the only ones to barely escape.

I'll admit these type of horror films don't connect with me that much and I prefer my villains to have something a bit more to them that cannibal hillbillys on offer here. Fortunately though they're at least competent villains, who despite getting a deserved comeuppance do show their own endurance to setbacks.

- A mid credit sequence did show that Thee-Fingers survived as he attacked a deputy sheriff by the side of the road.

- Apparently Eliza Dushku's character was named after the protagonist in the Stephen King novel Gerald's Game.

- The characters originally were supposed to be in their late twenties before being aged down to appeal to younger audiences.

- Chronology: The movie's set in the woods in Virginia. A couple who were rock climbing ended up being killed at the start of the movie.

Wrong Turn does get this franchise off to a decent start and probably is the best in a slew of uninspired sequels. The leads are good, there's some serviceable dialogue and the gore isn't too over the top. It's a diverting watch at least.

Rating: 6 out of 10