Wrong Turn

Inspired by the eponymous 2003 film, Wrong Turn follows Matthew Modine’s Scott as he heads out to locate his daughter (Charlotte Vega’s Jen) and her friends after they disappear while hiking the Appalachian Trail. It’s clear, initially, that director Mike P. Nelson has no loftier goal than to offer up a straight remake of the early movie, as Wrong Turn, written by series creator Alan B. McElroy, boasts a comfortably-familiar opening stretch that boasts the various hallmarks one has come to expect from this ongoing franchise – including a collection of somewhat one-dimensional protagonists and an early emphasis on the deadly traps within the picture’s forest-bound setting. (The effectiveness of these scenes is hindered, quite substantially, by Nelson’s regrettable reliance on distracting handheld camerawork.) It’s fairly tedious stuff that eventually gives way to a midsection that veers off into as unexpected a direction as one could’ve envisioned, to be sure, and although Nelson has included a handful of compelling, appreciatively brutal sequences here, Wrong Turn‘s second half is unable to pack the visceral, exciting punch that the filmmaker has undoubtedly intended – with this due almost entirely to an almost absurdly overlong running time of 110 minutes (ie the whole thing just feels so padded out, ultimately). The relatively satisfying finale ensures that the movie concludes on a positive note, at least, with the end result a relentlessly hit-and-miss endeavor that falls right in line with its equally frustrating predecessor.

** out of ****