How do you even describe a movie like Wrong Turn (2003)? Splatter? Gore? Slasher?
All of the above?
I think we've decided on the blanket term, "hillbilly horror."
So, today, the 10th spot on our 31 Days of Horror Halloween special has been stolen by some good ole fashioned hillbilly horror. The only redneck horror to make the cut.
Hillbilly horror is definitely not my thing. Let's be honest... if I wanted to see scary hillbillies, I'd hunt down some of my mom's family, am'i'right?
*ahem*
Anyway... it can be fun.
As the movie was starting, my comment was, "I wonder how many horror movies start with a sweeping shot of a forest?" and this was Jay's reply:
"It's our most basic fear. It's the fear of not knowing what's out there. You have to think it goes back to our primordial fears. There are bears, wolves, big cats, snakes, poisonous plants, insects that kill... what can you find? On top of that, there's always the Wendigo and Bigfoot - things that might or might not be."
He is, of course, absolutely right. In university, I took a class called The American Gothic and we spent a lot of time talking about the most basic human fears. The woods was right at the top of that list. It's the fear that followed us out of the caves and has followed us all through human history, no matter how far we've grown. It's the unseen, the unknown.
Of course, in this movie, the danger isn't always seen but it's definitely known.
The hillbillies in Wrong Turn certainly make themselves known. The noises they make are wild - as in wild animal wild. There's nothing about the noises they make that sounds human. Hell, they hardly look human themselves, which adds to the sense of their being the Big Bad. The monsters. (There's a lengthy conversation there about deformities and/or disabilities being tied to the bad guys through cinematic history but we'll save that for another day.)
I'll be honest, I have a hard time remembering which hillbilly is supposed to be which. I know they have names but I half the time I can't even tell which is which when they're on the screen. The three of them are just a vague mass of eww.
"There's also the fact that you were messing around during the opening credits and missed all the important info about the inbreeding. You have to watch the opening credits because they do explain things a lot. They don't mention it anywhere else in the film so it's important to pay attention.
As for telling them apart... yeah, me either. I know they have names and I know their names - I just couldn't tell which name belongs to which hillbilly."
There are some great jumps in Wrong Turn. You never know whether they're going to go for the obvious scare or not. For instance, when Chris (Desmond Harrington) drops his CD and goes to reach for it, you expect a crash that doesn't come. Moments later, he turns to look at a dead animal then crashes. The frights come almost more from wondering if they'll come than from them actually happening.
"Wrong Turn is great at building tension. There are plenty of jumps, too. On top of that, the camera work was phenomenal and the imagery is beautiful. The movie is well lit. Even in the dark scenes, you can still see. Those are the two most important things in any film: the light and sound. If either of those fail, it ruins the movie. Both the light and sound in Wrong Turn were perfect."
I especially love the shot looking up at the watchtower. It's beautiful.
"Not long after that, they escape into the trees when the hillbillies light the tower on fire. The camera-work as it swings through the trees is absolutely brilliant."
The thing I like about that scene is the fact that they've taken the fight to the trees and you learn the hillbillies are just as comfortable there as they were on the ground. The more you learn about the hillbillies, the less human they seem. They're more like animals than anything.
"But they're not stupid. They might look... crude but they're quite conniving. Scheming. They know their way around, they're proficient with weapons, and they're brilliant hunters. They're much more dangerous than their wild appearances would suggest."
The deaths in Wrong Turn are utterly brutal - but not as gory as you might expect. I mean... they're gory, yes, but the gore's nowhere near as gory as you see in movies nowadays. It's like someone's turned the horror up a notch.
"With Wrong Turn, they're cannibals, so the gore is very matter-of-fact. They're just hunters hunting, after all. We're basically just meat to them so it's not gore for gore's sake. It's, I suppose you'd say, functional gore.
As the Wrong Turn movies went on, though, they did get gorier. The first one doesn't really show much gore. You don't see them actually eating anyone in this one, but you do in the later ones."
Sometimes, when you watch a horror movie like this, you kind of feel bad for the killer because they're just trying to do their thing and they've got these idiot kids stomping around. Not the case with Wrong Turn. Chris, Jessie (Eliza Dushku), and the others aren't there on their own terms. They never wanted to be there. They were there because the hillbillies laid a trap. There's absolutely nothing redeeming about the hillbillies, which makes them hateful.
"This is where we usually talk about the score and I have to say thank fuck
they didn't go for the hillbilly music. You've got to give them credit for that. There was tension when there needed to be tension but not a banjo in sight, thankfully.
"Speaking of banjos... Deliverance was the first prominent hillbilly movie. You'd heard the phrase before in this country but it wasn't part of our cultural literacy until that movie. Is Deliverance the first hillbilly horror? I'm leaning toward no because it's not that much of a horror. There's a horrific element but it's more of a thriller."
Of all the characters in Wrong Turn, I liked Eliza Dushku's Jessie best because she's a total bad ass. She takes charge, she leads the way, and she fights back. Sure, her makeup doesn't smudge one iota and her hair is perfect at the end but, hey, you can't have it all, right?
"Eliza Dushku was always a good actress but I think she's one of those actresses who can't break into A movies. You see so many like that; those who do plenty of films but can't get into the big blockbusters. (I'm not even going to get into True Lies because that was before she made it.) Wrong Turn is... a high B movie, I'd say.
"This role suited Eliza Dushku down to the ground because it's basically Faith lite. She's brave and courageous. It's a role that was perfect for her. Her fight or flight instinct is definitely all fight."
I'm not familiar with the sequels at all. Were they any good?
"Four of the sequels are very good. There's one that's poor, but we can overlook that one. As long as you can keep a franchise fresh and entertaining, you can keep going. Just look at Friday the 13th. I know Jason X is one of your favourites.
"Eventually, you will get to a point where it's silly because how far do you have to go to keep the baddies coming back? As long as it stays entertaining, though, you can keep doing it. When it stops being entertaining and starts being cringe-worthy, it's time to wrap it up.
"The first Wrong Turn is kind of the last. It works best when you watch them out of order, if that makes sense."
The thing I like best about Wrong Turn is that it doesn't waffle; it just gets on with it. I do wish, though, they'd developed the characters a little bit earlier than they did. They could have left out the bit in the waterfall with Jessie crying about her friends because, without that character development, you don't really care all that much.
"I like Wrong Turn because it's believable. You've got these people living in the middle of nowhere and that's how'd you'd end up. They're doing it for food but they do enjoy the killing, which makes it a little gruesome, too. It landed a place on this list because of how unique it was. There aren't that many cannibal/redneck films out there so this is something different."
Like I said, this is our only real hillbilly horror. What sort of monsters do we have for you tomorrow? Come back and find out.
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