Development for the film began in 2001 when it was announced Summit Entertainment and Newmarket Group teamed to produce Wrong Turn, a 1970s-style horror pic to be directed by Schmidt, while McElroy wrote the script. The film was a co-production between Summit and Constantin Film, with Stan Winston designing the creature effects and serving as a producer.
Wrong Turn was theatrically released in the United States on May 30, 2003, by 20th Century Fox. It received negative reviews from critics, who praised its premise, but criticized its script, underdeveloped characters and horror clichés. The film grossed over $28 million worldwide against a $12 million budget.
Plot
Two college students, Rich Stoker and Halley Smith, are rock climbing in a remote forest of West Virginia. When Rich reaches the top of a cliff they are climbing, he is suddenly murdered before helping Halley up. Someone begins to yank Halley up the cliff, forcing her to cut the rope and fall to the ground. She attempts to escape but is caught in a line of barbed wire and pulled back into the woods, screaming.
Sometime later, medical student Chris Flynn drives through the mountains of West Virginia on his way to a business meeting. He stops at a gas station to ask directions, and the elderly owner named Maynard is of no help. Chris finds a map and decides to go down Bear Mountain Road. He collides with a stopped car whose tires have been punctured. The car belongs to a group of college students on a camping trip: Jessie, Carly, Scott, Evan, and Francine. They soon discover that their tire puncture was no accident, find barbed wire wrapped around it, and realize that someone did this intentionally.
Evan and Francine watch the cars while the others go to find help. Evan disappears after he hears something from the woods, and Francine finds his ear on the ground. As she backs away in horror, barbed wire is forced into her mouth by a mysterious figure, who garrotes her with it. The remaining group finds an isolated cabin and goes inside to use the phone, horrified to find human body parts in the house. They are forced to hide inside when the occupants return home. Three cannibalistic inbred mountain men, Three Finger (real name, Andrei), Saw Tooth (real name, Andu), and One Eye (real name, Tudor), enter the cabin with Francine's corpse, and the hiding group watches as her body is dismembered and eaten.
After the cannibals fall asleep, the group attempts to escape, but their captors awaken and chase them in the forest. The group finds cars left by previous victims and tries to make up an escape plan. Chris gets shot in the leg while trying to distract the cannibals, and the girls take him to a truck, where Evan's body spills out. Scott attempts another diversion for the other three to escape but gets killed with arrows instead. Jessie, Carly, and Chris stumble upon an old watchtower with an old radio and try to call for help. The cannibals arrive and are alerted when the radio responds to the group's call. Unable to get inside, the attackers set the tower on fire. The protagonists escape by jumping out and into the trees, triggering a chase in which Carly is decapitated by Three Finger.
Chris pulls a branch while Jessie lures the attacker so that the former can release it, knocking him down. Jessie and Chris flee and hide in a cave until morning. The cannibals find them, pushing Chris down the hill, then kidnapping Jessie and taking her back to their cabin. Chris survives the fall and meets a police officer, but the officer is killed by Saw Tooth, who shoots him in the eye with an arrow. Chris hitches a ride by holding onto the underside of the truck as Saw Tooth drives it back to the cabin, where Jessie has been tied down to a bed in preparation to be eaten, and watches fearfully as the cannibals chop up the dead policeman.
Before they can move on to Jessie, Chris sets the cabin on fire and drives the truck through the wall. He fights off the three cannibals and frees Jessie, and they escape as Chris kills the cannibals by blowing up the cabin. The pair then drive out of the forest in the cannibals' pickup truck and stumble upon Maynard's gas station nearby; Chris takes the map before he and Jessie leave.
In a mid-credits scene, a deputy sheriff who had received the radio call earlier investigates the remains of the destroyed cabin. Laughing insanely, Three Finger, who survived the explosion, rises and kills the deputy.
Development for the film began in 2001 when it was announced Summit Entertainment and Newmarket Group teamed to produce Wrong Turn, a 1970s-style horror pic to be directed by Rob Schmidt.[7]Alan B. McElroy, who had begun his career as a screenwriter for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), wrote the script.[8] McElroy devised the idea for the film after he and his wife were forced to detour on a rural side road during a snowstorm to avoid a major traffic collision: "As we're doing that, in the dark, in a snowstorm, we're thinking, 'Is this a smart idea?'" McElroy recalled. "Anything could go wrong!"[7]
The film was a co-production, Summit Entertainment and Constantin Films, with Stan Winston designing the creature effects and serving as a producer.[9] Inking a deal with Fox-based Regency Enterprises, the co-financiers of Wrong Turn secured domestic distribution through Fox.[10] Fox reportedly had trouble securing an R-rating from the MPAA due to the film's intense violence, with many of the TV spots for the film also being refused approval; this is possibly one of the reasons why subsequent Wrong Turn movies were released straight to video.[11]
Filming
Though set in West Virginia, filming of Wrong Turn took place in a nature reserve north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[7] Additional photography, including the sequence set in the forest station tower, occurred on a set.[7] While shooting a sequence in which her character falls through a series of tree branches, actress Emmanuelle Chriqui dislocated her shoulder.[7]
Music
Two soundtracks were released; one contains the original film score, and the other contains popular music.
Released in the United States on May 30, 2003, Wrong Turn earned $5,161,498 during its opening weekend among 1,615 theaters.[5] It went to gross a total of $15,418,790 in the United States and $13,231,785 internationally, making for a worldwide gross of $28,650,575.[5]
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 40% of 83 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.22/10. The consensus is: "An unremarkable slasher flick that fails to distinguish itself from others of its ilk".[12] On Metacritic, Wrong Turn has a score of 32 out of a 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Barbara Ellen of The Times wrote "This could have been a half decent cross between a Romero zombie movie and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but in the end the gore is so ridiculously overdone and the script so lame, that it undermines all sense of suspense".[15] William Thomas of Empire said "It's better than any of the official Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels. Which is probably a good thing".[16] Scott Foundas of Variety criticized the Wrong Turn for being "A negative pickup by Fox", adding that "[it was] dumped into theaters on Friday without benefit of press previews", resulting in "frightless torpor".[17]
A one out of four stars was awarded to the film by Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle who wrote "This was already tired stuff when cult fave Sleepaway Camp came out in 1983, and it's downright comatose by now".[18]BBC's Nev Pierce gave the film two out of five,[19] while Anita Gates of The New York Times called it "[a] lazy would-be horror film".[20]
In October 2018, another reboot simply titled Wrong Turn (2021) was announced.[21] The film was written by original film's writer Alan B. McElroy and directed by Mike P. Nelson. Principal photography for the movie began on September 9, 2019.[22] Though initially planned for a 2020 release, the film was held until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[23] After an announcement on December 16, 2020, the film was domestically released theatrically for a one-night run on January 26, 2021.
