I’m a big fan of the Wrong Turn franchise. The premise is simple: a trio of inbred hillbillies in the backwoods of West Virginia terrorize, kill, and eat their victims because that’s just what they like to do. Every movie in the series has the same basic concept, the variable that changes for the most part are who the victims are.
The first film was a group of friends stranded in the backwoods of West Virginia. The second film had a group of reality show contestants at the mercy of the hillbillies and their extended family (this one was my fave out of them all). The third had a group of escaped convicts (the weakest entry in the franchise); and the fourth had a group of college friends stranded in the asylum where the hillbilly trio once were patients (then they escaped, but happened to return while this group were there).
This is a pretty unforgiving horror franchise. Wrong Turn doesn’t like to have survivors around, and if you do survive it’s probably better for you in the long run if you had died anyway. It revels in the creativity of the kills, much like Saw and Hostel, but there’s an even stronger undercurrent of horror here: not only will these three kill you, they’re gonna eat you, too!
Enter Wrong Turn 5, which is just as unrelenting as its predecessors and better than the previous two films. Once again we have a group of young people in West Virginia, this time for the annual Mountain Man Festival. Can you guess what happens next? Sex, drugs, and gore are on the menu as these twenty-somethings do whatever they can to survive the horrors that await them at the hands of their hillbilly assailants.
The kills are pretty elaborate and creative this time around. And the over-the-top nature of each only adds to the fun of this long-running series. If you like your gore effects practical and not overly CG, this is a franchise that delivers the goods.
Special Features include:
A Day in the Death
Interviews with some of the cast as they prepare and perform their death scenes.
Hillbilly Kills
A behind-the-scenes look at each kill in the movie with interviews from cast and crew.
Director’s Die-aries
Follow Writer/Director Declan O’Brien as he takes us through several days of production on the film.
Audio Commentary by Declan O’Brien
For some blood-soaked fun, I recommend checking out Wrong Turn 5! It’s definitely worth checking out.
Which Wrong Turn movie is your favorite? Leave a comment and let us know!