Sunday, February 12, 2012

Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009)

Wrong Turn is the franchise that no one will admit to liking.  Come on, you know you get a kick out of this shit.  The cannibals are fucking awesome and the deaths are always gory and creative.  There's plenty of T&A for the dudes, and although the backstories are pretty standard (you gotta get those kids in the woods somehow) I think they have unique little twists.

The Wrong Turn installments are always kind of a who's-who of random horror actors and this time is no exception.  Appearing in a franchise that won't die is kind of a right of passage in the horror biz.  In WT3, we have a couple different stories going on.  There is a group of cute twenty-somethings white-water rafting, and a prison transport bus full of convicts.  The rafters are attacked, which is fairly predictable, but we get a lot more action with the prison bus.  It is run off the road by one of the cannibals, and bursts into flames, leading to a convict takeover of the situation.  I could get on board with this. 

One of the cute chicks, Alex, (the non-slutty one, of course) survived the cannibal attack and she meets up with the prison survivors.  Being the only girl in a group of sex-starved convicts seems like it would present a problem, but Alex (Janet Montgomery) seems to be able to hold her own.  There's an interesting character twist in this one, a relocated sheriff that grew up in the area.  Not only does he supposedly know the way to safety, but the others are convinced that he knows what's going on with the cannibals.  There's also this weird side-story about some found money, which keeps slowing the group down from escaping the cannibals, since they're carrying bags of money.  That just seems counterproductive.   The money meets an ironic end, which amuses me.

Overall, this movie definitely wasn't as good as #1 or even #2, but it was a solid installment to the franchise.  The deaths are fucking badass as usual, but I was a little disappointed to see the lack of actual cannibals in this movie.  We pretty much only have Three-Finger, who dominates the storyline.  Because of this, the plot (and subsequently, action) drags a little bit towards the middle/end.

Although we all know this series is supposed to take place in West Virginia, this sequel was actually filmed in Bulgaria (as several horror movies are nowadays) and almost all of the actors are British.  The problem with this is that mid-scene, the characters sometimes forget they're playing Americans, and randomly drop their accents.  Maybe they could take a cue from Ryan Kwanten? ;)

This was a decent flick and had some sweet effects.  The ending made me wonder if Four Four should do a supercut of people stating that dawn has arrived and/or they have "made it through the night."  I've seen this happen twice today, with both this movie, and Hell Night!  Anyway, looking forward to Wrong Turn 4.

2 comments:

Maynard Morrissey said...

If you enjoyed Part 3, you sure will enjoy Part 4 too.
I hated them both :) My favorite from the whole WT-franchise is the hilarious second part.

megzytay said...

ohh lord i am the one person lame enough on the planet i think to admit to love the WT franchise !!!

i love three fingers !!! i mean how can u not love a cannible who makes a tupee out of a dead guys scalp its got to be my fave moment in any movie ever !!!!

not to mention my ultimate final girl in Nina in WT2

ohhhhhh i loveeee this franchise, WT4 has the worst acting of the bunch with charactors u care not for so it makes ya love those darn canniabls even more !!

and i rencently just watch WT5 which is by far THE WORST ever and i fecking love it lol

i am a sad sad horror fan hehe