OK! Maybe I’m being a bit premature being that I am only about ten minutes into the film, and yes, I’m here with laptop in hand with a handful of complaints already. So far I have been treated to the Geigo cavemen taking over an mental hospital. They then begin electrocuting a hot red head and proceed to kill their doctor medieval style. Then the film just cut to a soft-core porno all taking place in one room. Some hot girl getting railed by her boyfriend while in the next bed over a Macy Grey lookalike is getting her box chowed by a hot Asian girl. Blood and sex in the first ten minutes; WOW! I smell another cliché horror film made for horney teenagers. Let me watch the rest of this film and I will get back to you.
OK! I’m back.
Here is the rundown on the rest of the film.
The character above that were all having sex at the beginning of the film and a bunch of their friends take snowmobiles up into the West Virginian mountains during a snow storm and get lost. They find an abandon metal hospital up on top of the mountain which just so happens to look clean and dirty at the same time. “We got gas” as one of the underdeveloped characters points out as he turns on a generator that powers the hospital. So as most college kids would do, they party. Then they find a film that contains experiments on the redneck cannibals that we are told were rounded up and put in the facility. We know from the beginning of the film that there are some on the loose and they just so happen to still be residing in the mental facility. So we’re treated to more lesbian sex, drinking, “Oh shit we’re out of Weed”, exploring and oh yeah; killing.
When the killing starts the film takes a turn for the better, and so does the script.( I give credit to the writers for the storyline). After a hard night of partying our characters wake up to find all their belongings gone, coats, gloves, you name it. There snowmobiles are disabled, leaving them no choice to but to stay in the metal hospital and fight for their lives against the cannibal mountain men. The thing is that the plot setup can only go so far before the characters have to take over the story, and in this case all the characters are not developed or important enough to live through this ordeal. Yes, I do know that this is in fact a prequel to the previous three films, so we kind of know the ending going into this one. In a nutshell the script flip-flops from good to bad. There are some really great twists but the underdeveloped characters and the poor dialogue are what ruined it for me.
In terms of production value the film also flip-flops, the set design, stunts and the gore are decent, but the make-up effects once again make the cannibals look like Geico cavemen. Some of the visual effects were out of control, I think if someone is being sand belted by the track of a snow mobile; I don’t think they are going to be screaming for a minute straight while gallons of their blood is being spewed into the air. There is a lot of unbelievable moments in this film where the characters are being diced and sliced and yet still remain conscious, I think if anyone was cutting your flesh off your would probably pass out.
The whole idea of the film taking place in the snow really adds to the separation of this sequel from the other two films. The first film will always be superior to all the sequels, but this one comes in a distant second and is by far the better of all the Wrong Turn sequels. The film has its issues and is very corny in B-movie fashion. The acting is nothing special and there is even a pointless character that gets away only to make it nowhere.
The Blu-ray disc has a lot of special features such as Director’s commentary and Die-aries, The featurettes Making Another Wrong Turn, Music Videos, Deleted Scenes and much more.
Overall, if Fox is going to make another Wrong Turn film they really need to try and bring back the magic of the first film. Sure, I’m not a big fan of the franchise as a whole, however, I think this franchise could work better than it has. Wrong Turn 4 does bring us back to the beginning of how it all started with the original cannibals from the first film, but it does not capture the feel of the first film, but it is better than the last two sequels. Once again, watch at your own risk.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015