Wrong Turn (2003)

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This typical slasher flick has polite and sullen Chris (Desmond Harrington) sidetracked in backwoods West Virginia after a truck jacknifes on the highway. He gets lost, and accidentally rams his beautiful Mustang into a car belonging to half a dozen campers. Everybody is shaken up, and Chris, recently-broke-up-with-boyfriend Jessie (Eliza Dushku), sincere Scott (Jeremy Sisto) and Scott's fiancee Carly (Emmanuelle Chriqui) head off to find help, leaving two victims, er, two friends with the wreck. The foursome come upon a backwoods house full of stuff taken from other stranded motorists. The house's occupants come home, and begin to hunt the group for food.

Stan Winston produced and provided some appropriately icky makeup for the trio of cannibals. It is neat, unless you ever saw the "Home" episode on "The X Files." Even mentioning the comparisons "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Deliverance" to this film just allows the viewer to realize this is not going to be anything you have not seen before. I enjoyed when director Schmidt would break out of the slasher mold once in a while with a unique camera move. The characters are not overly stupid, unlike most slasher film victims, and the musical score and opening title sequences are appropriate. The gore effects are great, and the set decoration for the cannibals' house is disgusting.

"Wrong Turn" is kind enough to set itself up for many sequels and a remake/reboot, and I could not bring myself to completely hate the film. It is eventually forgettable, but with a couple of good shots.

Stats:
(2003) 84 min. (* *) out of five stars
-Directed by Rob Schmidt
-Written by Alan B. McElroy
-Cast: Desmond Harrington, Eliza Dushku, Jeremy Sisto, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Kevin Zegers, Lindy Booth, Julian Richings, Garry Robbins, Ted Clark, Yvonne Gaudry, Joel Harris, David Huband, Wayne Robson
(R)