Wrong Turn DVD Review:

After trying an alternative route to avoid a traffic jam, Chris (Harrington) runs into Jessie (Dushku) and her friends who are stranded on a dirt road in the middle of a West Virginia forest. Things start to get worse when the local inhabitants start taking an unnatural interest in them, picking them off one by one.

All the elements of teenage slasher flicks are thrown into a blender to produce a surprisingly decent horror movie.

Wrong Turn steals from so many films it is untrue but despite this it still provides a good scare for your money. Everything from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance and even Jeepers Creepers have been plundered from to produce a script that is nothing new but still quite entertaining.

The characters are very bland and underdeveloped with only Desmond Harrington’s and Elisha Dushku’s Chris and Jessie getting any real back-story. This doesn’t matter though as most of the characters are just there to be killed in increasingly gruesome ways. This is a slasher flick after all. The women, especially Elisha Dushku, are just eye candy victims that always fall down when running away and the men are either easy prey or reluctant heroes. You know the drill.

The killings are refreshingly gory and very bloody and the filmmakers are not afraid to show you this but they combine this with some good jumpy moments as well. The real shame is that beside a small back story that is intermingled into the opening credits concerning urban legends, interbreeding and genetic anomalies, you never really get to see who the bad guys really are and why they are cabalistic killers.

While it does blend together many films from the horror genre, Wrong Turn still has enough gore and jumps to keep fright fans happy and scare the living daylights out of the extremely timid. You’ll never want to visit the forest again.

Star Rating = * * *

PICTURE & SOUND
Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with a 5.1 Dolby Digital. As with most modern transfers the picture and sound quality is first rate. The vibrant colours of the forest are there in abundance and the picture remains sharp even during the nighttime scenes. The Dolby Digital surround sound is also of a high calibre, coming into its own during the repulsive and gory finale.

BONUS MATERIAL

Audio commentary with Director Rob Schmidt and stars Elisha Dushku and Desmond Harrington

The best audio commentaries are those with group of people and this no exception. Rob Schmidt, Elisha Dushku and Desmond Harrington reminisce about making the film in a very fun and chatty manner. Schmidt takes about the pacing of the movie and the introduction of sexual tension that is quickly followed by a kill, which is very 70s influenced. All three tell us some behind the scenes revelations and the reasons why they took the job. This is a very fun commentary with all three spending most of their time laughing about the things they had to go through to get the film made.

Featurette: The Making of Wrong Turn (4.04 mins)

A very short behind-the-scenes with cast interviews and general patting each other on the back. Producer and special effects guru Stan Winston talks passionately about making the ‘Family’ real as well disturbing.

Featurette: Fresh Meat: The Wounds of Wrong Turn (9.25 mins)

Takes you into Stan Winston studios and reveals the secrets behind the creation of ‘Three-Finger’, ‘One-eye’ and ‘Saw-Tooth’. This is an interesting look into creature design from the best people in the business. The amount of research and design that goes into each creature is amazing. There is also a look at the numerous killings in the movie, including how they conceived Carly’s death scene.

Featurette: Elisha Dushku: Babe in the woods (3.42 mins)

The cast, director and Stan Winston sing Elisha Dushku’s praises in a featurette that is just one big pat on the back. The girl herself talks about doing her own stunts and the amount of training she had to do for the part.

Featurette: Stan Winston: Monster Mogul (4.33 mins)

Special effects master Stan Winston gives a short insight into his career from his low budget TV origins to creating effects for ‘The Terminator’, ‘Aliens’, ‘Predator’ and ‘Jurassic Park’. While the featurette is short it does reveal some of Winston’s influences and how James Cameron helped in the Predator design.

Extended and Deleted Scenes (6.55 mins)

Two extended scenes and a behind the scenes look at the dailies complete this very short selection. “Waterfall” and “Francine Kill” extend the sequences adding slightly more character interaction for Elisha Dushku and Desmond Harrington and more gore to Francine’s death scene. Also included are the dailies from Francine’s murder that show how much Lindy Booth had to go through to get the perfect take.

Poster Gallery

You can view all four posters for the movie including the three teasers and the final one-sheet.

Theatrical Trailer

The final trailer for the movie. The DVD also includes trailers for Jeepers Creepers 2, The Sin Eater, Spun, In the Cut and Alien: The Directors Cut

OVERALL

The featurettes are abit short but are informative. It would have been better if they had included more about how they designed both the ‘family’ and the numerous killings. The audio commentary is very good however and the three participants have a lot of fun doing it.

Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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