WRONG TURN 3: LEFT FOR DEAD
(UNRATED)
MOVIE: ** (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5)
STARRING
Tom Frederic as NATE
Janet Montgomery as ALEX
TomTamer Hassan as CHAVEZ
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Directed by: Declan O’Brien
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The third installment of the “Wrong Turn” franchise hits DVD and Blu-ray with more bloody deaths in the woods at the hands of mutants. In this episode, Nate (Tom Frederic) is a prison guard in charge of a bus-load of prisoners transporting through the woods. During the trip, the bus is attacked by a crazy mutant cannibal looking for food for the family. Drug lord Chavez (Tamer Hassan) thinks it’s a prison break, and he takes advantage of the situation. As they are being stalked through the woods, they meet Alex (Janet Montgomery), a young camper whose friends were killed earlier by the mutant. They all try to stay alive through the night while the mutant cannibal hunts them down.
WHAT I LIKED
I liked the original “Wrong Turn,” and the sequel “Wrong Turn 2: Dead End” was better than most direct-to-DVD sequels. This new installment isn’t as good as its preceding films, but it still has some elements that are decent.
For a movie like “Wrong Turn,” you’ll be watching for blood, gore and maybe some sex and nudity. I will give this video credit in the sense that it knows its audience and delivers on all these fronts. The nudity is front-loaded into the beginning of the film, but at least it’s there. The blood and gore is spread out over the course of the movie as the mutant cannibal cuts through the prisoner population. There’s enough yellow jumpsuits to provide at least one kill periodically.
The Blu-ray and DVD comes with the unrated cut of the film, which includes more intense violence that you’d see in an R-rated cut (and more than what you’d see in the first film, though not its unrated sequel). There is the threat of rape, which seems to go hand-in-hand with mutant movies (e.g., extreme horror flicks like “The Hills Have Eyes”), but at least director Declan O’Brien has traded the gore for a disturbing rape scene. There’s too much of that going on in movies for my tastes.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
By the time a film gets to its second sequel, with the previous installment showing up on DVD, my standards of quality are lowered when I watch it. This isn’t as good as “Wrong Turn 2,” and it doesn’t have the same B-listers in the credits. (For comparison, “Wrong Turn 2” starred Henry Rollins and reality TV star Kimberly Caldwell, along with some nice D-listers in the mix.)
“Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead” has direct-to-DVD stars, which is okay for the level of movie it is.
The real criticism I have for this movie is that for as much of the budget was spent on bus crashes and explosions, they could have invested in more mutants. The earlier films hinted at generations of these folks in the woods, but in this movie we just get one guy and his deformed kid. Movies like these are scarier when they feature multiple bad guys rather than one lone killer. Save that story structure for “Friday the 13th.”
Also, from an effects standpoint, there was a bit too much digital blood. It’s not like corn syrup and food coloring is too expensive or in short supply. Adding blood splatters may have helped bump the film into unrated territory, but it just looked cheap.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
Both the DVD and the Blu-ray contain two deleted scenes featuring the bumbling sheriff and the lead-in to the pretty deputy’s fate. There’s also three featurettes: “Action, Gore and Chaos!,” “Brothers in Blood” and “Three Finger’s Fight Night.” These three featurettes include insight into the stunts, the effects, locations and development of the final fight scene.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Horror movie junkies and anyone who can’t get enough of mutant cannibals.