DVD Review: Wrong Turn 2: Dead End

Images from Wikipedia

There have been several movies I've popped into the player, where I had high expectations, and was tremendously disappointed. The Happening was one of the worst offenders.  So, most often, I try to keep my expectations realistic, to prevent myself from disappointment.  With this weekend's selection, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, I went in with zero expectations at all. And you know what? It was a rollicking, good time!

The first edition of Wrong Turn was your typical slice 'n' dice, starring Greenlee Gazette favorite, Eliza Dushku (of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse).  It was a fun movie, and didn't pretend to be anything more than it was.  It left enough of an impression on me that when I saw the sequel in the bargain bin for $5, I thought, "Why not?"  This one doesn't feature Dushku, but carries on the theme of the first one, namely that there is a family of mutated freaks living in backwoods West Virginia, genetically deformed by years of toxic waste from an old abandoned paper mill.

Apparently, being an ugly mutant makes you murderous too, because anyone who wanders into their woods gets brutally (and usually creatively) murdered.  The first film chronicled a bunch of nubile youngsters who made a wrong turn, and ended up in mutantland.  This one features the cast and crew of a Survivor-type reality show.  It does feature a wrong turn of sorts by the first character we meet, Kimberly Caldwell, played by. . .Kimberly Caldwell.  Kim makes an impressive entrance, as a Hollywood diva, stuck in Hooterville.  Things don't go very well for her. 

The other name star in the film is Henry Rollins, jar-headed front man of Black Flag and pop culture renegade.  He plays an ex-marine, and current reality show host.  He looks badass, he acts badass, and as corny as I'm sure it is intended to be, it works.  The rest of the cast is capable, though sometimes just barely.  It is the camera work that shines here, as well as the brilliantly nasty special effects. If you're tired of horror movies that skimp on the gore, guts and gushers, this movie will bring all that and more.  Buckets of blood. Barrels, in fact. 

There isn't much about Wrong Turn 2 that is original.  Besides being a sequel, it covers territory that we've been to before in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, The Hills Have Eyes series, and countless others.  Most of the horror movie cliches are there, from the jump scare, to the gratuitous sex scenes, to gross outs like unintentional cannibalism.  Henry Rollins even enters Arnold Schwarzenegger territory with his little post-carnage quips.  But many of these tropes are subverted too.  The black guy doesn't die first (or even second), Caldwell's departure is unexpected and very well done (think Janet Leigh in Psycho, if George Romero directed), and you can't ever predict which characters are going to make it. I was surprised by at least three different characters being killed off that I expected to make it. 

Wrong Turn 2 won't ever be a bold-faced entry on any of these actors' resumes, but it is most certainly more enjoyable than 2/3 of the horror movies on my video shelf (of which there are dozens), and tops the original.  Sorry if I get your expectations up too high, and subvert my own premise, but for me this one is: Highly recommended (but only for its intended audience, of course)