Sound familiar? Of course it does; Wrong Turn unabashedly draws on The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance, and a half dozen other '70s drive-in favorites. The kids who have sex get knocked off first (a la Friday the l3th), and it's not at all hard to see who's going to get killed, and even in what order. And these particular creeps are really, really ugly, with faces like chewed-up bubble gum. Homely they might be, communicating with grunts, and whoops, but they're certainly handy with a shotgun and bow-and-arrow. But none of that is meant to denigrate Wrong Turn; somehow this movie manages the difficult order of treading familiar ground while staying completely fresh and compelling. There's none of the winking self-referential asides that come with so many horror movies these days, and hardly anything that can be construed as an on-the-sleeve "homage." Instead, Wrong Turn advances the plot relentlessly, with scarcely even a sense of humor, trading smirky in-jokes for visceral terror and suspense. Dushku (who bears a passing resemblance to '60s horror queen Barbara Steele) and Harrington, of course, are left to fend for themselves and, like the heroes of The Hills Have Eyes or Phantasm, take the fight directly to the bad guys rather than lying back passively and waiting to die. One segment takes place entirely in the upper branches of a pine tree (Ontario locations substitute for West Virginia), as the travelers are pursued by a leering, giggling kook; the death that occurs in that scene is one that has to be seen to be appreciated. Harrington's character Chris, in particular, is not all that likable in the beginning, but as the movie goes along he proves to be tough and resourceful (taking a superhuman amount of punishment, actually).

Rich in Extras
The DVD edition of Wrong Turn isn't overflowing with extras, but the ones that are included are definitely worth the time. There's an insightful and often funny commentary track with Dushku, Harrington, and Schmidt; not surprisingly, it was a very demanding shoot physically, with Harrington severely wrenching an ankle at one point. There's also a selection of deleted scenes (one of which has Chris and Jessie making out under a waterfall while hiding from the murderous cannibals, something which would have added nothing to the plot). The featurette entitled "The Wounds of Wrong Turn" is particularly interesting. One of the producers was makeup veteran Stan Winston, and it's obvious that he was quite an asset in the movie's production feel, art direction, and SFX. Winston notes that the nasty makeup on the three inbreds was actually researched and developed by looking at old medical texts on the effects of severe inbreeding (some especially horrid textbook photos are shown). In keeping with the old-fashioned (meaning the long-ago period of the '70s) feel of the movie, few digital effects were used, with Winston and company leaning more towards good old latex and blood squibs. There's also a featurette on Winston himself and his career, as well as "Eliza Dushku: Babe in the Woods" (heh, heh) and "Making Of Wrong Turn." Rounding out the features are a theatrical trailer and a gallery of poster designs for the movie.

Wrong Turn does for its antecedents what 28 Days Later did for George Romero's trilogy of zombie movies. Rather than trying to pay a self-conscious homage or reinvent the genre, both movies take the well-established elements of horror favorites and update, rejigger, and refresh them. The result, especially in the case of Wrong Turn, is a bang-up delivery in a gut-punch of a movie that grabs viewers by the necks and shakes them like bad puppies. No, it's not terribly original, and yes, it's a reworking of something you've seen before. It'd be hard to improve on it in any respect, though. This is a right turn for horror fans.