Wrong Turn 5

Wrong Turn 5 Still Isn't Right

The family is back, but sadly, not better than ever (Courtesy of Blu-ray.com)

In 1996, horror lovers had their faith renewed in the genre when Scream hit theaters and redefined a genre. The film stopped the trend of horror movies being released as direct-to-video comedy-horror sequels to horror classics such as Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, horrors are slowly returning to their dark days – and Wrong Turn 5, recently released direct-to-video, is a testament to that.

For those unfamiliar with the Wrong Turn series, it’s basically Texas Chainsaw meets The Hills Have Eyes. Each of the movies entails a group of young friends being chased by an inbred family of hillbilly cannibals in the woods of West Virginia. The first in the series is a personal favorite, because it takes a group of B-list actors and a seemingly recycled plot and successfully tells a suspenseful and well-acted tale or horror. The second wasn’t as scary, but was far more original and adds on to the back-story created by the first. The third and fourth, both direct-to-video releases, started to diminish my hope for the franchise’s future. However, I know by now you can never underestimate the power of a cult following.

Wrong Turn 5 follows the same basic outline of its predecessors. Five college friends travel to the notorious West Virginia town for a concert, but get delayed after one of their friends is arrested for drug possession. Occupying the cell next to the friend is the father of the hillbilly clan, who continuously taunts the sheriff, telling her his boys are coming to bust him out and kill everyone else in the police station. Naturally, when someone uses the clichéd line of “they’ll kill you all,” they do.

While this movie added nothing new to the horror genre, it’s an undeniable improvement over the past two installments. It tells a better story and features more relatable and developed characters. However, these pros don’t make it good enough to make those who aren’t fans of the franchise already go out of their way to see it. Wrong Turn 5 is essentially a torture-porn. In one scene, we see two characters for the first time meet on screen. Subsequently, they sleep together, but are never seen, heard of, or mentioned again. It was at this point I asked myself if the filmmakers were trying to be formulaic.

In the first two movies, the hillbillies killed for food, and simply had a little fun in the process. Now, the filmmakers have attempted to make the killings so extravagant they come off as ridiculous. The characters now kill for a sense of enjoyment and sick thrills, and consumption is never even mentioned or implied. The primary story behind the original movie is inherently lost.

It’s a shame that the Wrong Turn franchise has disintegrated into the path of the other horror classics, but at least this movie showed some promise for the future of the series. I recommend this movie to everyone who does follow the franchise, but to everyone else, don’t bother.

Rating: 1.5/5