Wrong Turn (2021) Movie Review & Comments

Oh disappointing review. I know a few people who’ve seen it already and enjoyed it. I’ll check it out when it’s free.
 
Thanks for the review Tom. This genre is not my cup of tea but I liked reading your thoughts on the film.
 
This genre is my cup of tea so I felt ready to enjoy it as either a trashy piece of nonsense or an interesting reimagining... and found it to be neither. If it had stopped at the point I mention in the review I would have easily given it a couple points higher as "good effort, very confused about its themes." But when it then insisted on dragging me through a badly structured, nonsensical third act, I felt totally bewildered by everything that happened, like it was being made up on the fly, constantly stretching credibility.

Since watching and writing, I've also seen some favourable reviews of it around which I'm having real difficulty squaring with the movie I watched.
 
This genre is my cup of tea so I felt ready to enjoy it as either a trashy piece of nonsense or an interesting reimagining... and found it to be neither. If it had stopped at the point I mention in the review I would have easily given it a couple points higher as "good effort, very confused about its themes." But when it then insisted on dragging me through a badly structured, nonsensical third act, I felt totally bewildered by everything that happened, like it was being made up on the fly, constantly stretching credibility.

Since watching and writing, I've also seen some favourable reviews of it around which I'm having real difficulty squaring with the movie I watched.
Could it be, because you were so ready to enjoy it, that it let you down more than some other reviewers, who were neutral to it, so you felt more negative towards it than they did?

I'm the same with the Movie Pearl Harbour. Could have been great, but for anyone like myself into that time period, it was an unholy mess . However lots of people went to see it & enjoyed it.
(If it wasn't for Kate Beckinsale, I would never watch it again, but....well, Kate Beckinsale! 🤷‍♂️)
 
I watched this recently and really enjoyed it. I never expected it to be as good as it was.

It made me check out the director's earlier film, The Domestics, which I really enjoyed too.
 
Id' still take the original wrong turn over this any day. So many plot holes it was like swiss cheese

I get that a group of people shun themselves away from society and hide out in them hills for a few hundred years but when they then show up in trucks and camper vans in the following scene.... so when did you take learn to drive, take your test, buy those vehicles?
 
Id' still take the original wrong turn over this any day. So many plot holes it was like swiss cheese

I get that a group of people shun themselves away from society and hide out in them hills for a few hundred years but when they then show up in trucks and camper vans in the following scene.... so when did you take learn to drive, take your test, buy those vehicles?
Apparently,
learning to drive takes only slightly longer than learning to use a bow with pinpoint accuracy.
 
Apparently,
learning to drive takes only slightly longer than learning to use a bow with pinpoint accuracy.
 
I feel this is a harsh review. Why is it that so many horror movies get such bad reviews? They appear to be onto a hiding to nothing before Production has even started.

Also, when one does come along that actually gets decent reviews, I often find them no better than the ones that get a hammering. I eagerly sat down to watch Saint Maud last week after its fine reviews. I can honestly say it was one of the most over-rated movies I have seen over the last few years. I am not even sure it can be classed as a horror movie tbh. I enjoyed this movie (Wrong Turn) just as much. Both 6/10 for me.
 
I got completely mixed up thinking i had seen original wrong turn and thought it was ok.
Mistaken it for the superior dead end starring twin peaks Ray wise.
Doh!
Will give this a miss.
 
Another one to add to the list of thoroughly disappointing 21st century horror films.
 
I tracked down the original on blu-ray last year as part of my Halloween viewing. I hadn't seen it for many years although I do remember some tense and gruesome moments from it. I haven't seen any of the sequels though.

I think there have been too many remakes and re-imaginings of early 2000's horrors that they just come up short by comparison as we've seen it all before.
Unfortunately studios would rather do a remake of a known film or franchise as a safe bet than create something new.

I will probably catch this when it's on streaming for free.

Could it be, because you were so ready to enjoy it, that it let you down more than some other reviewers, who were neutral to it, so you felt more negative towards it than they did?

I'm the same with the Movie Pearl Harbour. Could have been great, but for anyone like myself into that time period, it was an unholy mess . However lots of people went to see it & enjoyed it.
(If it wasn't for Kate Beckinsale, I would never watch it again, but....well, Kate Beckinsale! 🤷‍♂️)

I watched Pearl Harbor over the Christmas period. It had been years since I had seen it and my memory of it was all over the place. I swore I was watching a directors cut of something as there were so many extra scenes than I remember. It is an overly long, bloated melodrama with a ridiculous love triangle but the initial attack on Pearl Harbor still holds up and Kate Beckinsale is stunning in period costume. The blu-ray could do with a remaster or a 4K release with Atmos as it suffers from low bit rates and an old codec and looks quite soft.
 
The first Wrong Turn was alright but the rest were terrible rip offs
 
Why does the reviewer deem it necessary to mention that the scriptwriter is white? Would the (poor) script be any better if he were black? Or Chinese? etc etc.
 
Why does the reviewer deem it necessary to mention that the scriptwriter is white? Would the (poor) script be any better if he were black? Or Chinese? etc etc.
Doesn`t look white to me :eek:
 
Why does the reviewer deem it necessary to mention that the scriptwriter is white? Would the (poor) script be any better if he were black? Or Chinese? etc etc.

He never said the writer was white.
 
Indeed he doesn't - after re-reading it, and seeing the above picture of the screenwriter, the reviewer's original comment is rendered even more absurd
 
Yeah I think you've completely misunderstood the context he's making the comment in; in relation to how the film is written to be perceived.
 
Indeed he doesn't - after re-reading it, and seeing the above picture of the screenwriter, the reviewer's original comment is rendered even more absurd
I agree with @richp007 . This is the line I think you are referring to:-
it’s scripted like an old white guy’s impression of what the youngs are like these days
To rephrase it, Tom is saying is that he feels the writer wrote it as if it were written by someone who fitted the standard mould of "old white guy".
Just like one might say "this letter looks like it was written by a six year old". You're not actually saying that the writer IS six, only that it comes over that way.
 
Indeed he doesn't - after re-reading it, and seeing the above picture of the screenwriter, the reviewer's original comment is rendered even more absurd
Rather than suggesting McElroy is white, the comment was meant to foreground how strange it is that the racial dynamics are so mishandled and tacked on, though, hands up, rereading my own writing, that link between the two sentences is not obvious.

I was presupposing that people knew McElroy was African American.
 
Last edited:
For me this film didn't know what it wanted to be i just didn't care for the character's also though it was a missed opportunity on the sound front...hardly any surround activity whatsoever.
 
For me this film didn't know what it wanted to be i just didn't care for the character's also though it was a missed opportunity on the sound front...hardly any surround activity whatsoever.
And Mike P Nelson was a sound designer before he was a director. I couldn't understand how he botched that element!
 
And Mike P Nelson was a sound designer before he was a director. I couldn't understand how he botched that element!
Too many hats, maybe.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom