WrongTurn3LeftforDead

Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009)

Well for the 3rd installment of the Wrong Turn franchise they decided to move the production to Bulgaria (the first two had Canada stand in for West Virginia) cast a bunch of British and European actors to play “American” and ramped up the CGI. Not a good thing. The story here has a bus full of hardened convicts being transferred via a secret route over the Mountains. Of course that leads them right into the hunting ground of our favorite mutant cannibal family, who starts to polish them off one at a time. But if that weren’t enough the convicts break free and take the guards hostage, run into a cut little female survivor of first attack shown, and then are burdened when the find a wrecked armored car in the middle of the woods full of money. Really it seems to have fallen from the sky! Basically you get a bunch of killing, the typical he isn’t dead attempt at a jump scare, then a tacked on ending when you think it is all over.

If you can’t tell I’m not a fan of this movie. I have no idea how you can mess up a straightforward cannibal hillbilly survival movie, but they did. The plot is very simple and straightforward, but somehow is really boring at the same time. The movie hammers away at every cliché in the book. The sheriff shows up just in time to save the day, utters the words, “Everything is going to be okay” and then is immediately killed. I mean really if the movie was being played tongue in cheek or for laughs then that is fine. But it is trying to be a serious horror flick and falls flat on it’s face. Oh and that line I mentioned is one of the better lines in what has to be, dialogue wise anyway, one of the worst written flicks I’ve seen in a long time. If that weren’t bad enough the movie spends the entire duration establishing (badly) a couple of characters to inexplicably toss it all out the window with a tacked on ending that does nothing but try to establish things for Wrong Turn 4. Lets talk a bit about the cast. There are some movies that transport well to being filmed in Eastern Europe with a mostly non-American cast, but this isn’t one of them. As I’ve already mentioned the story is already on shaky ground with bad dialogue and poorly executed familiar situations. But you have a cast that is trying to act their roles as if they were American actors acting their roles. This leads to some really wooden and honestly poor performances.

So I’ve spent a lot of time bashing the movie, but it does do one thing right. Some of the kills are very creative and fun. You have a great bit with an arrow and a guy’s hand (I laughed pretty good at that one) early on. There is another kill that cannibal movie fans might recognize as a kind of take on that. Toss in a neat bit with a jello mold brain (yeah it is pretty fake, but a practical effect) and bad case of road rash for some good wholesome cannibal family fun. Now there are some other kills that are also creative, but are done with some of the worst CGI I’ve seen in a long time. This comes from someone like myself who watches a lot of low budget flicks too.

So in the end while I can appreciate some creative kills the movie falls flat for me. After seeing and enjoying the first two of the series I have to say that Wrong Turn 3 is a real disappointment that I can’t recommend anyone spend their hard earned cash on.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer