Welcome to a new feature on Matt’s Horror Addiction: VERSUS. Versus takes one film and presents two opposing opinions in head-to-head reviews with my friend and horror movie aficionado, Frank Pittarese. We’ll explain why we loved and hated the same movie, and you can decide who’s right!
Plot
Six friends drive to a small town in Virginia to hike the nearby Appalachian Trail, but when they detour off their path, they encounter a nightmare world of torture and death. Live or die, their fates lie in the secluded mountains — while the town below keeps its secrets.
Matt’s Opinion
Those expecting to see something similar to the 2003 cult fav Wrong Turn when they sit down to watch this reboot will be sorely disappointed. Despite having been written by the original Wrong Turn‘s Alan McElroy, the new movie offers up a completely different tale, one that feels inspired more by Midsommar than any of the previous six Wrong Turn films. I’m even going to guess this film was written as an “original” story and at the last minute was slapped with the Wrong Turn label at the hands of worried investors.
The only similarity between this new WT and the first movie is the trapped-in-the-woods plot, but unlike the original film none of the characters in this new one at any point take a wrong turn, making the title even more pointless. This new group of aggressively annoying Gen Z hipsters run afoul a violent backwoods community in the wilds of West Virginia, a community of dirty rednecks who dress in animal furs and speak in a Danish dialect. Deformed, ax-wielding hillbillies are out; suave, handsome woodsman are in.
The biggest sin the new WT makes is its overly complicated mythology surrounding the woodsy society known as The Foundation: these characters are not as interesting as the filmmakers think and their history and politics for why they do what they do are unconvincing and hollow. They live in the woods and preach to outsiders and burn their eyes out of their heads because on paper it probably sounded really cool. What us WT fans want is simple stalk-and-hack splatter fun and not a film, as well made as it is, that’s trying to be something it’s not. Grade: D
Frank’s Opinion
The original, 2003 mutant-cannibal horror film is a low-key classic that somehow brought fresh energy to a familiar story. That successful film spawned five sequels with ever-diminishing returns. Faced with lower budgets and weaker scripts, the series wasn’t just tired — it was exhausted. So this remake/reboot takes a smarter route: it does something completely different. There are no inbred freaks to be found here. The threat that lurks in the forest is entirely human — but the film takes awhile before revealing the exact nature of its antagonists. That reveal is, admittedly, out there. It’s WAY out there. But as outrageous as it is, it’s presented with a twisted confidence, leading to one bizarre turn after the next. Every twenty minutes or so, the movie levels up in engaging, not always predictable ways. The main characters aren’t necessarily presented in the best light (okay, they’re a bunch of privileged jerks), but I found myself riveted just to see what would happen next.
While there’s a bit of gore to be found as various folks are dispatched, I have a hard time qualifying this as a horror movie. In some ways, it’s more of a survival/cult thriller, which totally works for me. A framing sequence with Matthew Modine (as the father of the film’s protagonist) might feel pointless in the beginning, but everything ties up neatly in the film’s final act (or, rather, ACTS). If you’re looking for a new version of what you’ve seen before, you might be disappointed — but if you want something unique, this iteration of Wrong Turn is definitely worth checking out. If I have any gripes its that the movie could afford to have gone darker in tone. Had they given us more likable characters and cranked up the brutality — something tonally closer to The Hills Have Eyes, since they do borrow a particular theme from that film — this could have been outstanding. Still, it gets a thumbs up from me. Grade: B+