Creepy Critic: ‘Wrong Turn 3′ Review

Admittedly, my only experience with the Wrong Turn series was the original and aside from Eliza Dushku looking bored as usual, I was surprisingly entertained. I skipped the second installment for no particular reason, but may have to watch it to get my Henry Rollins fix. Fast forward to now and when I received my DVD in the mail I was curious to see where things left off with the creepy hillbillies that torture and murder innocents in the woods.

Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead starts out with a bang–slaying the scantily clad within the first five minutes of the film in a most hilarious way. After that, things are way too talky and a lot less fun. Though the kills come often, the limited effects were distracting.

The story starts with friends on a rafting trip who all but one, end up dead at the hands of a mutant, affectionately known as Three Finger (from the previous films). While our final girl is fending for herself in the woods, a nearby bus full of dangerous criminals is heading toward their destination until Three Finger strikes again and causes it to crash. The prisoners escape and the security guards are taken hostage. One of the bad boys is rougher and tougher than the rest and when the gang comes across an abandoned vehicle full of money, he death marches the group across the woods and uses them as ponies for transporting the dough. Eventually the lone college student and the prisoners intersect and she joins them on their escape from the deep, dark woods. Along the way members of the group are tortured and killed by the hillbilly freaks and it’s a race to see who will actually make it out alive.

Kudos to director Declan O’Brien for trying to create a story that is not centered around topless teens but unfortunately the plot and script don’t cut it. Most of the movie involves conversations about the group’s intentions, but they actually end up doing very little. With only two hillbilly  mutants (in really bad makeup) the hunt feels anticlimactic. I can only recall one death scene which actually made me cringe (prisoner + tow truck) but aside from that it was all a big snooze.

The ending sets things up for a possible fourth film but hopefully this was the final stop in a wrong turn that led to nowhere. Wrong Turn 3 is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Image: Fox