The latest in the time-honoured tradition of horror remakes is the backwoods, mutant cannibal-infested Wrong Turn franchise, given new life and a brand new outlook by director Mike P. Nelson and series writer Alan McElroy. Fair warning for fans of the six-film strong franchise: the seventh instalment is a sharp turn (the first of many puns, sorry) into something different. Gone are the infamous hillbilly cannibals, as is the almost comically excessive gore, replaced by a hodgepodge of modern horror themes and tropes done better elsewhere, in a bizarre attempt to reboot the series. An excruciatingly long set-up featuring a host of unlikeable characters gives way to several lacklustre kills – seeming tamer than they actually are given the franchise’s past efforts – before the baffling reveal of the film’s antagonists raises more questions than it answers, leaving audiences scratching their heads right up until the predictable conclusion.
The latest batch of unsuspecting young victims to take an unfortunate trip into the woods are led by Jen (Charlotte Vega), at a vague, unspecified crossroads in her life and travelling the American south with boyfriend Darius (Adain Bradley) and their friends Milla (Emma Dumont), Adam (Dylan McTee), Luis (Adrian Favela) and Gary (Vardaan Arora). Their itinerary finds them poised to tackle the unforgiving wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains, warned by the locals to keep to the track lest they risk unspeakable horrors. Naturally, being a movie, they veer off said track in search of a Civil War-era monument, inadvertently entering the territory of a fierce and protective cult living deep in the mountains; a decades-old sect of early American settlers who believed the Civil War would destroy the country and elected to wait it out in the woods. As their numbers begin to dwindle, Jen, aided by her father Scott (Matthew Modine), stages a daring escape from the cult, battling both villagers and the mountain itself in a desperate bid to return to civilisation.
It’s apparent within the first twenty or so minutes that McElroy’s script is scatterbrained to say the least, with the franchise’s veteran scribe unsure of where to go thematically with his updated take on the original concept. His biggest mistake may just be in how little respect he shows towards the series as a whole, intent on mocking the admittedly over-the-top entries that came before. It’s all well and good to take a little jab here and there and have fun with your commentary on earlier work, but the sneer with which his script does so – as if anyone who enjoyed those films are of a lower class – comes across as hypocritical considering this is the seventh instalment in the franchise and the only people that are watching are likely to be fans of what they’ve seen before. Audiences have seen horror franchises be completely revitalised in recent years, with Halloween and Doctor Sleep two shining examples that showed their source material the right amount of respect whilst building on that legacy. Sure Wrong Turn wasn’t as highly recognisable or iconic a horror property but the films were their own brand of big dumb fun with a devoted fan base.
Instead we’re left with McElroy’s interpretation of a modernised, atmospheric “high-brow” take on the original concept, which essentially equates to a poor quality rip-off of modern horror classic Midsommar. From the bear suits worn by the clan’s hunters to the visual aesthetic of the cult’s village to the inexplicable Nordic accents of its inhabitants, it’s all pulled directly from Ari Aster’s film without any of the nuance or subtlety. The atmosphere of that film allowed for Aster to unleash quick bursts of violence that seemed worse than they actually were because of the anticipation he had built towards these moments. In the seventh Wrong Turn film there really are very few ways to shock the audience beyond the depraved sights of people being flayed and eaten on a table or decapitated while buried alive. Nelson and McElroy deserve some credit for trying to take the franchise in an unexpected and bold direction, but to do so without any evidence of a desire other than to slap together other film’s strengths and hope for the best is simply lazy. Hell even some of the kills are basically shot for shot recreations ripped from Midsommar.
Where McElroy’s intent is clear is that he wants Wrong Turn to stand for something, to deliver a meaning and subtext that goes beyond the schlocky murder-fest it had become. The problem is he can’t decide just what theme to explore or message to send. Early on we sense the tensions rise and a prickliness between the easy-going yet quick to anger locals and the privileged, arrogant young visitors, which is later compounded in what looks to be an interesting twist on the protagonist/antagonist roles of the film. It never gets to a point where it truly subverts expectations however, and at a certain point the script abandons the idea altogether, focusing on cheap jump scares and rote twists that undermine that spark of intrigue that came before. There is also an attempt to draw the obligatory Trump comparisons (let’s hope Biden’s election means the end of this particular story element in films) in the divide between the cult who have formed their “true” vision of America and the larger country, with clunky comparisons drawn between the Civil War and recent turmoil in America grating with their obviousness. Add to that small but noticeably inept commentary on environmentalism, racism and white privilege and you have yourself one very confused film, which could have easily benefited from a narrowing of focus, or dare I say, a commitment to fun over substance in a franchise about hillbilly cannibals. Kudos to McElroy for trying something new but this is a pretty open and shut case of not catering to your audience.
Wrong Turn should have been a reinvention for the franchise. A chance to celebrate and honour the legacy of torture that had come before while building something new that furthered the franchise in new and exciting ways. McElroy and Nelson seem to be throwing everything at the wall to make this happen, with a smattering of social commentary from several camps which never succeeds in coming together in anything coherent. The gory kills and carnage-causing cannibal hillbillies are nowhere to be found, replaced by a blatant and bad imitation of Midsommar which baffles with its absurdity as much as it bores. Proving that the seventh time is not the charm, this might be one wrong turn too far for a franchise that had seemingly found its niche as gore-filled pulp. McElroy might want to take his script’s own advice and get back on the path.
Wrong Turn stars Charlotte Vega, Emma Dumont, Adain Bradley, Dylan McTee, Adrian Favela, Bill Sage, Daisy Head, Rhyan Elizabeth Hanavan, Vardaan Arora & Matthew Modine – In cinemas now.