Wrong Turn

Review by Clint Morris

As the title implies, you should never get off the beaten track.

Ok, so you may be in a rush or interested in where that 'other' road goes - but remember there could possibly be chainsaw wielding maniacs out there [Texas Chainsaw Massacre], petrifying spectres who preoccupy cabins [Evil Dead] or Jeep-Steering Half Man-Half Monsters who live to torment blameless youth [Jeepers Creepers].

But seeing that you're all wearing barely-there tank tops and seem more interested in pulling over for a snog than simply getting to your destination - I'm not at all surprised to find that you're not listening.

Bring on the in-bred cannibals then.

A return to the slasher films of the late 70's, early 80's, Wrong Turn again cements the fact that what's old is new again, as the 'jump out of your seat' gore-feast makes its triumphant return to cinema.

Just as quick as the teen horror disappeared, and then the horror spoof - back comes the genre that started it all - outfitted with enough big-bosomed girls, calamitous dialogue, sauce bottles and fiend masks to see timid adolescents wiggle and squirm their way through the next 80 minutes or so of film.

Chris Finn [Desmond Harrington] is on his way to a job interview. Since the highway's blocked, he decides to take a dirt road instead, and unfortunately crashes smack bang into the car of some similarly lost tourists.

Chris joins the foolish group of two couples, Carly and Scott (Emmanuelle Chriqui and Jeremy Sisto) and Evan and Francine (Kevin Zegers and Lindy Booth), and their friend Jessie (Eliza Dushku) to try and get back on the road.

Half head off to look for a phone to call help; the others stay with the car. Unfortunately, they're the ones that first encounter a trio of disfigured, inbred inhabitants that have a suckling yearning for meat of the human variety.

Leave your cynicism at the door and you might just have a good time watching Wrong Turn. Its choca-bloc with gore, fittingly coated with pulsating music, immersed in great monster makeup, and - especially with spunky Eliza Dushku ["Buffy"] taking the reigns - reasonably well cast.

Ok, so it's nothing new, the script was probably written on the bus ride home, and a lot of its unintentionally funny, rather than jump-out-of-your-seat scary - but if anything, Wrong Turn is one heck of a fun ride.

Making Jeepers Creepers look like a Teddy Bear's Picnic, and again lecturing youngsters never to get off the freeway, Wrong Turn is an enjoyable hour and a half of jumps, jolts and jugs.

3 out of 5

Wrong Turn
Australian release: Thursday July 31st
Cast: Eliza Dushku, Desmond Harrington, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, Lindy Booth, Kevin Zegers.
Director: Rob Schmidt.
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