Starring Erica Leerhsen, Henry Rollins, Texas Battle, Aleksa Palladino, Daniella Alonso
Written By: Turi Meyer, Al Septien
Directed By: Joe Lynch
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy on Amazon.com link

Wrong Turn 2 is a direct-to-DVD sequel of a movie I never saw and was never particularly interested in seeing. Naturally, I wasn’t expecting much, just a crappy gore-happy movie. In some ways, that’s exactly what this was. In other ways, this almost had a decent movie hiding in it.

WT2 may or may not have a connection with the first movie, which I can’t say, since I’ve never seen it. But as for the plot, a “Survivor” type reality show is being filmed in some back woods, and then some mutant cannibal people show up and start the killing and eating. Oh, and there’s some random Rambo-style moments, too. It’s kind of an odd mishmash of plot and styles.

I’ve mentioned this many times before, but when I watch a horror movie, I want it to be scary, or at least atmospheric and creepy, not disgusting. Unfortunately, WT2 is just one of those disgusting movies. In fact, it’s more disgusting than most. There are more human intestines in this movie than you can shake a stick at. The movie even begins with a completely unexpected, completely disgusting, and completely demented scene and just runs with the ball from there.

Now, while I’m not one of those so-called “gorehounds”, I don’t mind gore, as long as it’s in a really good movie. Sure, George Romero’s zombie movies had a lot of disgusting human-intestine-eating going on, but those were just damn good flicks. But the thing with this current crop I keep seeing is, they’re just not that good. I recently reviewed another Fox horror screener DVD of Hills Have Eyes 2, another sequel featuring horrible mutant killers who (as far as I remember, anyway) were also cannibals. (Sorry if I’m wrong on that count… it just wasn’t a memorable movie.) That movie was just plain awful, with a constant stream of predictable jump-scare moments and disgusting deaths and absolutely no entertainment value whatsoever. But you know what? WT2 isn’t that bad, not by a long shot. I sure wouldn’t go so far as to call it a good movie, or something that I’ll ever watch again, but it does have a strange, demented, gleeful liveliness missing in so many of these endlessly Bleak and Serious Horror Movies. The humor, dark and disturbing as it may be, is there in spades, from the goofy family moments of the evil cannibal mutants, to the (presumably intentional) hammy over-the-top acting by a couple of the “human” actors and most of the “horrible mutant cannibal” actors (although most of the “humans” act like this is just another Bleak and Serious Horror Movie).

And you know what else? It wasn’t entirely predictable, either. With most of these newfangled horror movies, you can point to a character and say “He’s the next to go. I give it, oh, five minutes.” And five minutes or so later, BOOM! Goner. But with WT2, not only did a few of the deaths come at completely unexpected moments, but… well, without giving too much away, let’s just say there were a couple people I figured would likely survive who didn’t.

So do I recommend this movie? If you’re a “gorehound” you’ll probably get a kick out if this. Don’t let the direct-to-video stigma fool you. Disgustingness aside, it’s halfway decent. If you’re like me and don’t think that a lot of loving close-ups of internal organs make for a great movie, then you’ll probably want to skip it.

Features:
Featurettes
Commentary

Audio:
Dolby Digital surround
Dolby Digital 5.1

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1

Subtitles:
English

Favorite Scenes: Uh… the parts that didn’t focus on intestines, or human-flesh consumption, or force-feeding of human flesh
Rating: NR
Running Time: 93 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: