WrongTurn2DeadEnd

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)

A Survivor rip off reality show called Apocalypse decides to film in a remote wooded area. Unfortunately for them they pick a forest that happens to be home to a family of inbred cannibal mutants. You see ever since the local paper mill closed down years ago leaving enough chemical waste behind to drive away all of the game the family has had to hunt the only thing left. Of course that would be people! Quickly the cast and crew go from being involved with a television show to being on the menu. The one thing that the family never expected is to meet up with someone like the host of Apocalypse, ex-military and all around badass Murphy, who turns the tables on them. Can Murphy take out the threat before all of the cast and crew become lunch? Check out this direct to DVD gem to find out.

Okay for everyone who is always complaining that they just don’t make them like they used to go out and buy this movie now. Wrong Turn 2 is at it’s core an old school cannibal/slasher movie in the style of the 80s. The story is fairly straightforward with the stereotypical characters that one would expect. You have the wisecracking jerk, the tough girl, the jock, and the sensitive girl that is done wrong. What the story does that caught me off guard was begin killing off characters that I identified as ones that would normally live. Suddenly I was wondering who was going to live and who was dead meat, and that added to my enjoyment of the movie. I was also fairly impressed with the cast, who honestly isn’t asked to do much. Unlike the actors in many of the recent horror releases they didn’t strike me as refugees from the WB. The casting of Henry Rollins as the badass ex-military man Murphy was pure genius. Rollins isn’t a great actor, but he is absolutely perfect in this role and gives the movie much of it’s humor.

The original Wrong Turn had some of the best effects in recent memory and while the sequel doesn’t live up to those standards the effects still worked for me. The makeup job on the cannibal family is nicely done and was creepy. Some of the kills used a bit more CGI than I would of cared for, but still they were fun. There are also some spots where they used practical effects, which of course I prefer. From the first kill (very silly and outrageous) to tossing people thru a wood pulper headfirst I’d have to say that Wrong Turn 2 delivers the blood and gore. Though again the first kill leaves a little bit to be desired because of the use of some bad CGI.

I guess in the end I’m not going to allow some less then great effects work ruin what was otherwise a fun and entertaining movie. While Wrong Turn 2 doesn’t maintain the serious atmosphere of the original, but has much more humor (the Rollins character) and is at times winking at the audience. To me this makes the movie more fun to watch and is one that I’ll likely revisit before I would the original (which is again a great movie).

I watched the Blu-Ray for this review. Included on the disc are some special features that are worth checking out. The best are a making of featurette and a featurette on the special effects work that was done for the movie. They are pretty much what you expect, but if you dig the movie you might want to give them a chance.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer