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Stars:
Eliza Dushku, Desmond Harrington, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Jeremy Sisto
Writer:
Alan McElroy
Director:
Rob Schmidt
Feature
length: 84 minutes
Extras:
Commentary By Director Rob Schmidt and Stars Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku,
Deleted Scenes, Featurettes, Poster Gallery, Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French and Spanish Language Dolby
Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 28
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2003/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Six
young adults find themselves stranded on an old dirt road in the middle of the
West Virginian woods while being hunted by three cannibal, inbred, and deformed
mountain men. The film was independently produced, but the production values and
state of the art makeup effects courtesy of Stan Winston’s Studios, who also
produced, are all very much what one would expect from a Hollywood film
regardless of where it was produced. The film also tries to evoke a quality of
the classic 1970s horror pictures like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” but it
looks much to slick and clean to evoke that gritty down and dirty feeling that
independently produced features like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” had and
thus “Wrong Turn” seems less realistic. Sure if one really was in that kind
of situation, it would be horrifying, but the film just looks much too clean and
polished to feel any real connection to it. Perhaps it is just because I watch
lots of horror films given my profession, but I just did not connect with the
characters because pretty much it doesn’t take an expert to figure out who is
going to die and who is going to live. The characters are also too thinly drawn
so I did not care much when one would die. I also was not disturbed by what I
saw. While not exactly a classic either, I think Rob Zombie’s “House Of 1000
Corpses” captured the kind of duality 1970s horror films have, which for me is
a kind of attraction and repulsion at the same time. As a viewer I am wondering
why am I compelled to watch this movie even though it feels toxic? Yet after
I’ve seen the movie it lingers in my head for days afterwards and suddenly I
may find myself wanting to see it again.
That
type of covering one’s eyes, but leaving a slit open so you can see what
happens next is what “Wrong Turn” is missing. Perhaps the best elements in
the film are the three mutated mountain men because they look real enough to be
believable without going over the top and they are all truly menacing in nature.
Sure Eliza Dushku is one sexy tough girl, but her presence does not elevate the
film above some of the other work she has done on the big screen. Yet despite my
caveats I do not want to give the impression that I hated “Wrong Turn.” I
liked it and found it to be an entertaining flick that was not too long and
featured a few thrilling moments, but that’s about it.
Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment presents “Wrong Turn” on DVD with both an
anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio and a pan and scan (1.33:1)
presentation on the other side. The picture and sound quality on the DVD are
great. Perhaps too good in terms of picture quality, given the goals of the
filmmakers, but at least there no complaints in terms of the transfer. It is
quite solid. The pan and scan version looks a shade lighter, but still is
remarkably free of any compression anomalies and whatnot. The English Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is quite aggressive and very engrossing. A
French and a Spanish Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack are encoded on to both
presentations of the DVD as well as English Captions and Closed Captions for the
hearing impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles. Director Rob Schmidt and Stars
Desmond Harrington and Eliza Dushku provide a feature length audio commentary
that is accessible for both presentations of the film, but it is actually rather
weak compared to some of the featurettes. At times it seems they just do not
know what to say and I did not think there was any great information about the
making of the film that was not already included on the featurettes.
Moving
on to the extra value features, they are spread across both sides of the DVD-10
so if you want to see everything, you will have to flip the disc over. On the
widescreen side there are three deleted scenes presented in a letterboxed aspect
ratio taken from a video source. One of the scenes is a reel of dailies that
reveals the various takes shot for one character’s death, presumably to be
covered for network television broadcasts and whatnot. Next is the best of the
featurettes entitled “Fresh Meat: The Wounds Of Wrong Turn” that really does
give an inside look at the creation of the makeup effects as well as the merging
of real and CGI effects used in the film. A short poster gallery and the
film’s theatrical trailer are also included on the widescreen side of the
disc.
On
the other side is a more promotional “Making Of Wrong Turn” featurette as
well as self explanatory shorts entitled “Eliza Dushku: Babe In The Woods”
and “Stan Winston.” The pan and scan side is marked with a labeling
detailing one side has the widescreen version while other does not, but if you
do not have a magnifying glass handy, just put the disc in your player with the
unlabeled side facing up to access the widescreen version of the film. The
interactive menus are easy to navigate.
As
a companion for a night of maybe two or three horror flicks for your Halloween
viewing, “Wrong Turn” is not a bad choice. “Wrong Turn” will debut on
DVD-Video at retailers on and offline from Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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