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Review

Danger After Dark Review: 3 Stars
“’70s horror” has become the popularly articulated reference point for the newest crop of American genre filmmakers, as these young directors express a desire to return the genre to the halcyon days of such uncompromising terror landmarks as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left. Most of the films made by these contemporary directors fall considerably short of such aspirations, but fortunately Wrong Turn is one of the few examples (like Cabin Fever) that manages to get the formula right, and take effective inspiration from the sick and simple genre films of the ’70s. Wrong Turn’s story couldn’t be more archetypical—six young and attractive travelers find themselves stalked in the West Virginia mountains by a group of deformed inbred maniacs (a character in the film even references Deliverance in the dialogue)—but that provides a solid framework for director Rob Schmidt to craft a streamlined, suspenseful, and savage horror film that uses its skeletal storyline and brisk 84-minute running time to great advantage. After efficiently establishing the film’s central premise, Schmidt ensures that the remainder of the movie is all momentum and no filler—even the romantic tension between leads Eliza Dushku (Buffy) and Desmond Harrington (Love Object) is kept to a minimum—and the film is a series of brutal setpieces that often work with tremendous skill (the treetop chase is a notable highlight, and the only sequence in recent horror film memory that will likely conjure memories of both Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Hills Have Eyes). A spare and often blunt piece of contemporary horror filmmaking, Wrong Turn doesn’t reinvent the genre, but merely serves as a satisfying example of it.

TLA Guide Review: 1.5 Stars
A group of nubiles are chased through the woods by a family of inbred cannibal hillbillies. This well-worn premise is ill-served here; while it's refreshing to see a modern horror film that is nearly free of self-reflexivity and dumb, safe jokes (there is one lamentable Deliverance reference, alas), Wrong Turn is still rather juvenile, silly and just not scary. Aside from one nifty shock, this has little to no value as a horror flick; it's truly just a bunch of stupid kids running screaming through a forest for almost ninety minutes. There's a fight scene in a tall tree that is patently absurd, and a hilariously gratuitous leg-sawing moment that is designed to scare the crap out of its audience. It won't. Forget Deliverance and Texas Chainsaw comparisons; this can't hold a candle to nearly forgotten '80s cannibal-hillbilly cheesefests like Final Terror and Just Before Dawn. At least they had some kick to them.

 -- Dean C. Galanis