Wrong Turn (2021) Review

 "We don't bother them and they don't bother us."

-Aileen

A group of young adults decide to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail and end up going off the marked trail.  They stumble across booby traps and a society of people that doesn't take kindly to strangers.  Do any of them have what it takes to survive?

What Works:

The strongest aspect of this reboot is the main protagonist, Jen (Charlotte Vega).  She starts off the movie as an extremely annoying stock, slasher movie character; the one who says killing is wrong no matter what, even in self defense, and really gets up on their high horse.  We've had this character as the main protagonist in previous Wrong Turn movies and it always drives me up the wall.  However, over the course of the movie, Jen becomes a ruthless, Rambo-like figure.  She'll do whatever it takes to survive and kill anyone who gets in her way.  That's an awesome character arc and reminds me a lot of the story of Far Cry 3.  Vega gives a great performance and a character that becomes easy to root for as the movie goes on.

The other standout in the cast is Dylan McTee as Adam.  He's a surprisingly interesting and complex character for a slasher movie.  He's a classic dude with anger issues character.  As things become more and more dire, he gets angry, violent, and very willing to save his own skin, no matter the cost.  He's also a very compassionate friend that tries to support his companions during their ordeal and even earlier when he perceives racism or homophobia targeted at them.  Adam easily could have been a stock character, but I appreciate how complex he is.

This reboot is very different from the previous Wrong Turn movies.  I'll get more into that later, but I will say, the script has some genuine twists and turns that kept me guessing.  There isn't much of that in the previous films.  They are all fairly straightforward, so it was nice having a few curveballs thrown at me.

Finally, while the gore isn't nearly as extreme as some of the previous installments, the reboot does have one really disturbing plot point that gave me the chills.  The punishment of "darkness" is left a little vague when we first see it in action, but later we see just how messed up it is.  The dead are the lucky ones as opposed to the ones who are given "darkness."

What Sucks:

Like I said, this movie is very different from the previous Wrong Turn movies, to the point where it doesn't feel like a Wrong Turn movie.  Besides taking place in the woods and having booby traps, it has nothing else in common with the previous films and I wish it had been called something else.  I think the name is misleading.

Apart from Jen, Adam, and Darius (Adain Bradley), the rest of the cast is pretty forgettable.   They're mostly one note if they even have a note at all.  It's cool that we get a gay couple in the group of characters, but they don't have much more personality beyond that they're gay.

This movie is nearly 2 hours long.  Slasher movies should not be this long.  The ending really drags out here and has multiple points that could have been the ending.  Some of the movie definitely could have been trimmed down.

Verdict:

Wrong Turn is a decent horror movie, even if it's not a great Wrong Turn movie.  Some of the characters are duds and the running time is too long, but our main character is great, the script is solid, and there are some genuinely horrifying moments.  If you're a horror fan, it's worth a watch.

 7/10: Good