Sunday, September 15, 2024

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

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