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Take the usual oft-used horror story. A handsome young man is traveling through a forest when, due to an accident, he becomes trapped in the vegetation along with other unfortunate souls found at the site. Add the usual oft-used cannibals, and the game is on. Or almost...
This horror from 2003, directed by an unknown Rob Schmidt, has over the years become a cult film in the cinematic underground. Undoubtedly the feature film is well-balanced, shot with precision and without the pretentious desire to overdo it. It picks up on the typical clichés of the horror genre and is inspired by the films that have made genre history: "The Hills Have Eyes," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and the various countless horror films with outcasts in search of "meat" in the background. So everyone would expect a banal film, that unfolds among things already laid out in the past by the cited films, but the reality is that Schmidt and his collaborators have succeeded in bringing to life a varied work, that knows how to keep the viewer in suspense. "Wrong Turn" remains in constant balance between horror and thriller, between atrocities (not too many and not too violent) and "woodsy" chases in West Virginia. In fact, it seems that the author rather than focusing on lakes of hemoglobin, wanted to emphasize more the tension, the true "soul" of the film.
"Wrong Turn" (which has had 2 sequels in recent years) does not represent anything new in horror cinema, but being a work shot with a minimal budget and started out under the worst auspices, in the end proves sufficient, albeit with some imperfections here and there. The filmmaker also lingers on the relationship between antiquity/modernity. The forest dwellers are something primitive, "ancient" beings, while modernity is represented precisely by "normal" men, who as always will turn into executioners. Further, the accident that will keep the protagonist at the mercy of the forest is due to the desire to keep up with the times to arrive on time for a work appointment.
Rob Schmidt's cinematic work does not shine for originality, but it knows how to navigate skillfully between horror and more thrilling moments without ever falling into banal depictions of violence. There will be no shortage of twists, heightened by a somewhat claustrophobic setting that gives an aura of uncertainty to the entire work.
Almost forgot... Watch it even beyond the ending credits...
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