Wrong Turn (2021) Review. A worthy relaunch.

When studios announced Wrong Turn, that fun and violent 2003 slasher film, was going to be rebooted, we all thought if that was a wise decision. After all, the Rob Schmidt film with a decent cast didn’t have the best result in the box office and most of the critics hated the senseless violence in the movie. It’s not that the franchise needed to be rebooted. It’s just that maybe some other movies were worth the effort.

The case of Wrong Turn (2021) is very strange. It’s a rebooted film that shares a name with a movie made in 2003, but doesn’t have a pinch of a connection with that film about deformed cannibals killing teenagers in the woods. Alan B. McElroy is living the dream of relaunching the script that made him famous. And what do you do when the first try doesn’t work? You change the direction and come up with a whole new story in regards to the “monsters” hiding in the woods.

A bold move that pays off.

It’s not your regular slasher film.

The script is almost self-aware and toys with the idea of every film that takes place in the woods, and the events that take place before the group of people begin hiking. Sure, they get drunk the night before, and someone even warns them not go there. The signs are the usual and those of us who love “campy slasher films” almost applaud when everything we want to happen actually happens.

However, the way Wrong Turn breaks the formula is a clever proposition of something else we didn’t expect. This time, a second act opens another window of progress in terror and the villains actually have depth in their motives. What’s hidden in the woods has nothing to do with deformed inbred cannibals. There’s a society and their plans are more macabre than what we can imagine.

I wish I could tell you more .

Can you turn horror into a suspenseful drama?

The conflict in Wrong Turn is far more important and admissible than what the franchise has told us over the years. We can notice the change in the formula when the events are not repetitive and there’s a hint of hope for those that are behaving well. What follows is the introduction to another movie that’s not about young people trying to survive. They will try to live under some different circumstances.

The horror element is left out and something more realist becomes the center of the plot. Of course, the father looking for his daughter is there, but the main theme is completely switched towards a more logical idea. We don’t get much details about it and this is where the movie trips a bit. Fortunately, that ending saves the day. It’s fantastic.

All the hype for this?

It works. I can’t say it enough. The film is completely different to what I was expecting and I appreciate the attempts at changing the formula. The accomplishment is undeniable and Wrong Turn breaks all the rules in favor of more realistic terror. The Appalachian Trail is not the same after this.

Federico Furzan

Film critic. Lover of all things horror. Member of the OFCS. RT Approved Critic.