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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Declan O'Brien
Tom Frederic (Blood Trails)
Janet Montgomery (The Hills Run Red)
Tamer Hassan (Goal! III)
Gil Kolirin
Supplied By : Fox Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October. 23, 2009
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| PLOT The first course for the bloodthirsty family comes when a group of campers arrive, realizing only too late that ticks aren’t the only things that bite in these backwoods. But when some of the most vicious killers in the country escape into the woods from a bus transporting them to prison, Three Finger and his family may have met their match. Will justice be served on the convicted murderers or upon the mutant killers? |
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| THE REVIEW Being a fan of WRONG TURN, I got a pleasant surprise when I reviewed it's sequel, WRONG TURN 2 : DEAD END in 2007. Not only did WRONG TURN 2 maintain the style of the original, it really amped up the ultra realistic gore and was a lot of fun., in my opinion, even better than the original. So when I heard of a new sequel being made, a sequel titled WRONG TURN 3 : LEFT FOR DEAD, I couldn't help but to set my hopes high for it, If it were at least half as fun an entertaining as the second effort i'd be satisfied. Well, as for this film, call it a lesson learned for me, never to have such high expectations for some things, because after seeing this third entry, I was left being rather disappointed with it. The film starts of with the seemingly obligatory gory kill, this time in the form of multiple water rafters, leaving only one survivor who narrowly gets away. We then move on to Gafton state Penitentiary where the guards are prepping for an inmate transfer which has been moved up ahead of schedule. Another thing about the transfer that is changed is the route in which they would take due to word getting out about two inmates having an escape plan. Of course this may sound like a good precaution at first, but of course it turns out to be bad news for them as it sends them through Greenbrier West Virgina, While en route the prison bus is eventually derailed and as a result, most of the guards and prisoners on board are killed. The guards that remain, namely Nate(who is one day shy of attending law school) essentially have their roles reversed as they become the prisoners as the inmates take charge. Chavez, along withe the help of another inmate, Floyd trek through the woods in search of the individuals that were to assist in the escape. Along the way, the meet Alex, the lone survivor of an attack who claimed the lives of several of her friends and they all come across an old armored car, which freight that has been left untouched, it's also around this time that Alex, a traumatized survivor emerges from the woods to join them. The gang takes the loot, but soon their new found loot causes tension within the camp. But before they know it the money must be made second priority when the gang of criminals come face to face withe the "thing" that Alex had warned them about, a deformed mutant cannibal named "Three Finger" who just so happens to be hunting for his next meal While some people may not agree with me, I found WRONG TURN 3 : LEFT FOR DEAD to be a film that is very different from the previous two. As I said with WRONG TURN 2, it pretty much stayed in tune with the style of the original, but when it comes to LEFT FOR DEAD it kind of went in a different direction. Sure, the WRONG TURN series' signature gore is still here(in abundance, I might add) and some of the kills top anything ever done in a wrong turn film, but in my opinion this film seemed more about a technical story rather than suspense, fun and all around popcorn movie thrills. The WRONG TURN films have always been more about the cannibals themselves, but WRONG TURN 3 seems to be focused more on the two inmates who are planning to escape, and then later about the inmates inner turmoil once they discover the money. Yes through all of this they are still fighting for their lives against blood-thirsty cannibals, but I don't know, it was just a rather mundane mixture - it was as if the movie FLED(or something similar) had been magically implanted into a backwoods slasher film. If you really had to have chained together inmates who bicker at one another, couldn't have been more like BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA or something? At least Pam Grier could kick some ass. To make a long story short, this film isn't awful, but it is far from being as entertaining as the previous films. Here instead of having a family of deformed cannibals, we are limited to only a few. The film tries to focus on one main cannibal dubbed "Three Finger". there's noting wrong with that, except for one problem......there is absolutely no build up for him. For Three Finger, we get nothing, rendering him distinguishable from any regular old cannibal in the film, although he(or it) is supposed ro be what draws our interest to see this film. Unlike the previous films(again I say it), there is really nothing at all special about the acting or the characters portrayed for that matter. All the characters her are generic, your typical hardened criminals and guards. Janet Montgomery of the recent(and excellent THE HILLS RUN RED) portrays Alex, the lone survivor of the massacre that opens the film. Montgomery is relatively new and this is the second time that I have seen her perform(in less than a month or so, even), but she does seem to have what it takes to be an indie scream queen. She was great in THE HILLS RUN RED, but unfortunately in WRONG TURN 3 her role is just to similar to her role in that film, what's worse is that the two films were released almost at the same time. But nonetheless, she probably has the most memorable character, and I feel that she could be one to keep an eye on - no pun intended. After having high expectations for this film, I have to say that this film is just ok, a film that would be forgettable if it did not have the gore content that it has. Just think about it. If you strip away the whole prison inmate thing, you have nothing more than a less interesting JEEPERS CREEPERS 2. Director Declan O'Brien claims that he not only wanted to maintain the cool gore, but he also wanted to add more of an action element to the film, but in my opinion, this one had even less action than that of the last two films. Where was it exactly? |
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| GORE
METER 6/10 Multiple impalements, a body chopped in three sections(Symbolism? I think so), a face cut off, a scalping(with brain eating), one cut in a barbwire trap, as well as one being lit ablaze. There are also a lot of gunshot wounds, blood splatter, etc. |
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MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 There wasn't much about the score that I noticed. During the prison scenes, there was a synthesizer sounding track, other than that, it was your typical suspense score. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM For me WRONG TURN 3 : LEFT FOR DEAD was a big disappointment after really liking the direct-to-video sequel that came before it. Having seen all three of the films, I would say that this film is the weakest film of the current trilogy. |
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