WRONG TURN

US, 2003, 85 minutes, Colour.
Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku, Emmanuel Chriqui, Jeremy
Sisto, Linda Booth, Kevin Zegers.
Directed by Rob Schmidt.

Maybe the simplest horror plots are the best. If you read the synopsis of Wrong Turn, you will surely say that it has all been done before (all kinds of Scream movies as well as Blair Witch Projects). But, we realise, it is not so much whether we have seen it before but how is it done now. Personally, I found this quite a creepy film, with more than a touch of realism in the dangerous situation in which the characters find themselves and fight for survival (not all of them successfully).

The film is set in the backwoods of West Virginia amongst inbred families (who behave like characters in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The Governor of West Virginia might have a reasonable case to sue the film-makers for their presentation of West Virginia. Having said that, we can say that Wrong Turn does what it sets out to do and does it very effectively, chills, fears and scares. A group of young adults find themselves on dead-end (literally) roads in the mountains and have to use their wits to escape some monstrous mountain men. Some do, some don't.

1. An early 21st century horror film? The tradition of such horrors in the backwoods as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? In the tradition of The Blair Witch Project?

2. The setting of West Virginia? (The film's comment on West Virginia, the hills, the inbreeding?) The visual beauty of the countryside, the mountains, the highways, the country roads? The contrast with the backwoods service station, the homes? The fire lookout tower? The atmospheric musical score?

3. The references to previous films like Deliverance? The tradition of this kind of film?

4. The group of young people out in the woods? Chris and his new job, the appointment, the highway, the traffic jam, the road accident? His impatience, going back, the woods, searching for roads, his encounter with the man at the service station, the map, the ominous warnings? His travelling, crashing and the barbed wire snares? His meeting the group, their going camping, their friendship? The decision about what to do? His heroism, his being with Jessie? The house itself, the horrors in the house, the pursuit? The deaths? He and Jessie and Carly and their escape? The pursuit through the woods, going into the lookout tower, its being set on fire, their having to jump? Carly's death and he and Jessie escaping? The continued pursuit after the jumping into the trees? His following Jessie, her capture, his getting the vehicle and driving it into the house, rescuing her? The return along the road, his looking at the man in the service station, burning the map? A future? With Jessie?

5. Jessie, her relationship, her friends taking her out, young, their attitudes, relationships? The meeting with Chris, suspicions? The decision to leave Evan and Francine behind? Her going into the woods, the pursuit, the death of Scott? The house, the horrors? With Chris, the tower, jumping? Her being captured, the torture? The final rescue?
6. Evan and Francine, staying behind, smoking pot, the sexual encounter, the ugliness of their murder?

7. Scott, Carly, their relationship, the attempt to get out of the house, Scott's death? Carly, spoilt, going with Jessie and Chris, leaping from the tower, her decapitation? The visual impact with the tree?

8. The three brothers, the visual suggestions of their appearance, their house, the abandoned vehicles, the jars and their contents? The weapons? The men arriving back, mutants, inbred? Their pursuit, their weapons, killing Scott? The chases in the woods, the physical endurance, burning the tower, the decapitation? Capturing Jessie, the build-up to her killing? Chris and his driving the vehicle, his defeating the brothers? The indications of their survival? (And their killing of the policeman?)

9. The few people in the hills, the old man at the station, his warnings, how much complicity in the murders? The policeman, his disbelief, his sudden death? The other police and investigations?

10. The tradition of having a group of young people, lost, pursued, being killed off, yet using their wits to survive, the couple who do survive? The ugly villains, and their survival?

11. In the tradition of this kind of film - or contributing something new to its development?