Wrong Turn: Enjoyable Cult-ish Reboot

I must admit, the Wrong Turn franchise has passed me by and this seventh entrance nearly did similarly until I listened to Matthew Modine’s recent interview on the Empire Podcast. I’m glad it didn’t.

I’m all for cult-ish horror where it all goes a little crazy (inject The Wicker Man into my veins!) and this latest Wrong Turn outing – however on-the-nose it might be at times – delves into some weird places that do kind of make sense.

Following a bunch of millennials on the Appalachian trail, it does fall into the trap of some stereotypical characterisation that you often get in group horrors: the knobhead, the moral one, etc. You also know, from the moment they speak, who’s lasting the distance and who’s meeting a gruesome end earlier in proceedings. Then you have Matthew Modine, the worried dad – they should have just strapped a machine gun on his back and called him ‘homely Liam Neeson’.

Despite elements of predictability, I had a good time with this reboot. As it moves into its final third, there are some nicely down twists and turns (and there’s quite a few of them!) that you might not always see coming. Throw into the mix some gruesome deaths and cult fun-ness (costumes and punishments), it makes for a watchable 100+ minutes of modern day chiller spectacle.

⭐️⭐️⭐️