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Overall Rating : 6.5/10
Directed By : Joe Lynch
Erica Leerhsen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) )
Henry Rollins (Feast)
Texas Battle (Final Destination 3)
Daniella Alonso (The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2006) )
Supplied By : Fox Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : September. 11, 2007
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| PLOT Retired military commander Colonel Dale Murphy (Henry Rollins) hosts the simulated post-apocalyptic reality show where participants are challenged to survive a remote West Virginia wasteland. But the show turns into a nightmarish showdown when each realizes they are being hunted by an inbred family of cannibals determined to make them all dinner! |
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| THE REVIEW In WRONG TURN 2 : DEAD END, the plot sets up with a reality based show. Military Vet Dale Murphy is the host as he takes six contestants out to the Appalachian countryside. When they get there they find out the game, that is much like survivor, would mix various elements of survival skills - sort of like a boot camp. The contestants come from various backgrounds much like the reality shows that air on our TVs every week - a stereotypical vegan, former football star, an X-Games Skateboarder, a female War Veteran, (whom happens to be a Lesbian), a female whom seems to be there for the sole purpose of a little action(a slut), and finally a Production assistant turned contestant, who has taken the place of a celebrity who decided to not show up. The contestants are then broken into two person teams as they embark on the missions that the game demands and the deeper they delve into the woods the closer they get to uncovering a secret, that they just happened to not realize the woods had. The secret is that within the woods lives a cannibalistic family, when chemical spills drove everyone away from the area and killed off all the wildlife, they chose to stay, hunting any human life that passes through for survival - all the while still reproducing to keep their bloodline alive. For the 6 contestants and the crew members, what started out as a scripted game, turns into pure reality for them. News of the WRONG TURN sequel has been circulating for awhile now, to the point where a lot of people began wondering when it would be released, if it would be theatrical like it's original, but overall, it had fans anxiously awaiting it. As a fan of the original, who's not afraid to admit it, I am also not afraid to admit that I was one of those people. The first film was such a fun a gritty concept, sure the whole "backwoods family" has been done, just about as many times as a film has featured some sort of a masked killer - but I saw WRONG TURN as something different as the special effects were eye-catching, while still remaining realistic. My main concern was would the sequel still have all of the things that made me like the first. The film first centers it's plot around something that has become a staple for all the TV stations these days due to what I guess is high viewer rating - reality TV. When I first heard of the film's plot, to be honest, it disappointed me a little, I mean the plot is not original, it happened in the film SLASHERS, more recently in THE CONDEMNED, which I has heard that THE CONDEMNED closely resembles a foreign film titled BATTLE ROYAL (which I have not seen either of the two yet, so I can't say). Capitalizing on the reality show craze even more, the film starts off showing us Kimberley Caldwell driving in her fancy rental car, as you heads to participate in the film's reality show. She is on the phone speaking to her manager as to how she is the only "celebrity" to be on the show. First of all, if she had stayed any longer, this would've ruined the movie for me personally. All of these American Idols become finalists on the show and are immediately deemed celebrities? What is the would coming to? Kimberly Caldwell is NO celebrity in my book, but fortunately she is killed off quickly - and rather nicely I might add. It's here that we meet all of the characters, and get familiar with all of them, for ever how long they'll be around, some will be around more than others it's inevitable. The film starts off rather slow and dull, as i'm not a fan of the SURVIVOR type shows, I wasn't really into the whole reality show set up - although Henry Rollins' character, was pretty interesting during this time because he took the game serious, as if his life depended on it, he wanted to be a TV star after all....and it was funny. I can't really say that the other characters(with the exception of Erica Leerhsen's Nina), were all that fascinating character- wise. It's as if the characters were just thrown out there and given stereotypical personalities and careers in a rush, like as if they were just put together to run around, scream and die. And why does it seem as if Daniela Alonso is forced to play a lesbian in everything she does? She was a Lesbian is ONE TREE HILL also, so when she played a straight single Mother in the HILLS HAVE EYES 2 remake, I just couldn't take it seriously. Ok back on the subject, I really like Texas Battle as an Actor, but feel he always gets the lamest of roles, why does he have to always be the "jock guy", why not a Doctor or something other than a Sports athlete....ok maybe not a Doctor, but you get my idea. I'd really like to see this guy in more deeper roles. Erica Leerhsen plays a character whom is your typical heroine type, your Sally Hardesty type, if you will...and to me she does it well. In my opinion, I believe that this film was actually built around the character of Nina, as she is the one most relatable to the audience. Not everyone is a Football star, X-Gamer, a military vet with survival training, or even a production assistant or crew member, but almost anyone could be a Vegan or someone whom deals with suicidal issues. Nina is the most....well I don't want to say most "Human", but she is the most common. Erica does a fine job of getting you to like her, and ultimately root for her getaway, she's beautiful to look at and I really. really love her scream! As she has shown here, and in the THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake, this girl can scream, and it is really distinct, she should definitely be considered a "Scream Queen", I personally hope to see her in even more Horrors. The film picks up in the second half as the blood begins to fly. As I said earlier, the gore special effects were the strong point for the first. They were highly creative, but I did believe it kind of suggested a lot more gore, than it ended up showing on screen. This sequel goes on to fix this problem, because no matter how cheesy the film's plot may be, or how dull some of the acting got, the filmmakers definitely sat out to deliver the gore to fans! I was really quite surprised at how much gore was shown here and just how realistic it looked, it definitely raised the bar beyond any plot faults it has. A friend of mine asked me just yesterday. as to why I am harder on certain movies rather than others, and the answer is quite simple, and not that complicated really. When I review a movie, I don't concentrate on technicality for the most part, all a film has to do, is keep me interested and entertained, and at least make a little sense - in other words, the gore really raises the fun factor in this film, because it is definitely that. My main complaint is that, in this sequel, they sort of humanized the backwoods cannibals. In the first film, they just came out of nowhere to attack, sure they were a family, they had a house, but it wasn't fully emphasized. Here we see them doing humanly things such as sitting in a recliner and watching Television, and cooking dinner. I think the cannibals were scarier in the original due to the fact that we didn't know their background, they were just scary deformed beings we knew little to nothing about. This is also the main problem with films like the HALLOWEEN remake, I feel that too much was told about Michael Myers, making him too much like us.....taking whatever "scary" that had ever existed in the character away. In the end WRONG TURN 2 : DEAD END is a fun follow-up and a really good watch. Yes some of it is a bit uneven as some scenes that try to be comical and are later offset by the really serious gore content that turns the film into a more traditional slasher film. |
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| GORE
METER 7/10 Honestly, I didn't expect to see the magnitude of gore that this film brought to the table. There are bodies split in half, arrow impalements, bloody cannibalism.....basically all of the stuff from the first film, only this time it's amp-ed up. This is probably one of the goriest straight-to-video films I have ever seen! |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 I really don't remember much of the score, so in turn it must've not had a much of an impact. I do remember a couple of Rock tracks, one of which was "Electric Avenue". |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Looking back now, is it as good as the first? Not exactly. Is it gorier than the first? Yes. Is this film fun? Absolutely! Sure the acting and plot isn't always great, and the production is almost but not quite on the same level as the original, but the directing is great and so is the gore effects - some of which was even executed far better than the original I thought. If you were a fan of the, in my opinion, underrated original WRONG TURN, and are looking for a fun and should I say, bloody way to "kill" some time, check this out! This DVD will be released on October 9, 2007 |
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