So I rented Wrong Turn, a reboot of a fairly dismal 2003 city-folk-run-afoul-of-backwoods-mutant-cannibals movie that (somehow) has five sequels (none of which I’ve seen). The reason I rented it was odd though… Looking on the AMC Theater app on my tv, it was listed as being 140 minutes long… and I couldn’t fathom what would require almost a two and half hour runtime for a reboot of a backwoods cannibal horror movie. And I was fascinated… it would either be a work of genius or a staggering egotistical disaster… either of which I was in for.

Unfortunately, the app misprinted the time and it’s really only about 1hr and 40 minutes (or 50 minutes according to iTunes). But, hey, I watched it anyway, just with lowered expectations of brilliance or dumpster fire.

Anyway, yes, this is a reboot of the franchise. Six young hipster city folk decide to hike a stretch of the Appalachian Trail. They don’t so much as take a wrong turn as they decide to go off path to see some old Civil War ruins. At which point things go south (so to speak) and they are kidnapped by your bog standard hillbillies. Except… well… except it’s not quite that movie after all.

Somehow this movie managed to cobble together a brain and offer a different take on this old trope (and even reminded me a bit of Midsomar). Now, don’t get me wrong… the movie knows when to be exploitation trash and offer up the ooey gooey (it’s not for the faint of heart). But somehow it also decides to have an opinion on the tropes of this mini-genre. The backwoods folks ain’t dumb and they ain’t without a society, laws, and pride. And the movie (somehow) even has a mini discussion about ethics and morality… and whether there’s a grey area or if right is right and wrong is wrong. No, it’s not the deepest philosophical deep dive ever… but at least it tries. It has a thought in its head.

Plus it has Matthew Modine as one of the fathers of the missing girls and its as much his story as it is the lost hikers. It was nice to see him and it was nice to have more than just a bunch of idiots running around the woods lost. Plus it has a fantastic ending. I didn’t see it coming and would have been pleased if it had gone one way or the other… and I sure liked the direction it picked.

So, hey, you probably already know if you’re going to even remotely consider a movie in this genre. You’ve probably seen some of these before… and if you haven’t, I can’t imagine this is one you’d bother trying. But I was personally pleasantly surprised. It’s better than it has any right to be while still wallowing in the traditions of the genre. Even if it wasn’t two and a half hours long.

Score: 82