Review of Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007) by Corey B — 18 Jan 2012

Wrong Turn was a movie any people looked over upon its original release. Since then, I've found a few people like myself who respect and dig it as a great piece of work for the horror genre. I originally looked over the sequels as they all went straight-to-video (which doesn't normally run in its favor).

After spending an evening with this one, I may take the time to watch the rest of them. Wrong Turn 2 was a sequel that went a bit lighter on itself and dare I say was a tad more entertaining than its forefather.

The gore here was beyond insane, the pace was swift and there was even some female nudity gracing the visuals here! I also appreciated that the inbred family were added more characters and screen time.

It didn't give me sympathy toward them by any means but it did add a depth of interest and made them a tad more scary. There was also a 'Reality TV' gimmick tagged to this one's arse that surprisingly strayed from the norm when it came to how it was displayed.

Tag to that some major suspense when it came to the characters (honestly, I had no idea when or if some of these folks were going to die) and you get one entertaining hour and a half for this turd. Joe Lynch gave some neato moment with the POV shots without ever going overboard.

The movie also kept to one of the quickest paces I've ever seen on film. Energetic the whole way. Erica Leerhsen looked as gorgeous as ever and acted well as the bitch who bites back. Henry Rollins rocked it as both Reality TV Show host and as badass mutant killer.

Texas Battle did a good job as the football hero. This was a huge step up from his role in Final Destination 3. Special mention to Daniella Alonso as the ass kicking lesbian of the group who's collected performance helped me stay in the game.

The film wasn't without the cliches, though. Even though there was suspense here, the predictability card was played down a few times throughout my watch. The settings and action scenes were also drastically toned down when compared to the first one.

I enjoyed it, but didn't get as big of a rush out of them. Lastly, some of the characters here got on my last nerves (Mara and Jonesy, namely) but to be fair, it made it all the more rewarding when they bought it.

Wrong Turn 2 was all in all, an effective and all-around solid sequel to the great original. It stayed true to its sources while keeping me very entertained and that's all I asked from it. Awesome!