wrong turn 2 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Obviously I'm one of those people who does NOT believe that violent films cause violent behavior, but I just caught wind of a strange little story from Australia that adds an interesting new angle to the discussion. You can read the full story right here, but the basic gist of it is this: Six underage inmates at an Australian juvenile detention center (two of which were there for sex-related offenses) were treated to a screening of the slasher sequel Wrong Turn 2: Dead End -- a flick that, yes, contains all sorts of nasty violence, casual nudity, and graphic sequences of cannibal-mutants in the act of (ahem) coitus.

Now, as much as I love the horror flicks, I doubt I'd play Wrong Turn 2 for any 14-year-old-types, let alone some kids who've been incarcerated for seriously anti-social behavior. But apparently one of the facility's recreation officers thought it was perfectly acceptable to show the nasty horror flick to a bunch of (at least somewhat) unbalanced youths. Needless to say, several Aussies are calling for the officer's dismissal. They also seem to be annoyed that the DVD was rented with taxpayers' money, but that seems a rather minor infraction, all things considered. (DVDs are pretty inexpensive and all.)

Wrong Turn 2 director Joe Lynch was a little snarky when he told Dread Central: "Although it seems that the unfortunate individuals involved have an impeccable taste in horror films, this was never intended to be shown in ANY correctional facility to emotionally fragile minds. Please be warned, Wrong Turn 2 could influence one to engage in uncontrollable fits of cannibalism or mutant diddling and is not meant for the easily impressionable ... or served with vegemite." But when I told the guy I wanted a slightly more serious response to the story, he told me this: "Films like Wrong Turn 2, as fun as they are intended to be, are extreme in their entertainment and honestly, shouldn't be shown to overly impressionable minds, especially in a government-run location like a correctional facility or a school. That seems pretty obvious to me."

You thought that with all the love we've been throwing at Austin's Fantastic Fest we'd probably forget all about good ol' L.A. Screamfest. Not with me on horror watch! The event runs from October 12 to 20, and if you happen to be located anywhere near the legendary Mann's Chinese Theater -- you just might want to duck inside to see what sort of murderous mayhem is going on.

And the Screamfest looks to be starting off on the right foot this year: Last night's opening night film was George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead! After much praise from the audiences at Toronto and Fantastic Fest, the master's latest zombie opus will hit the west coast with much excitement and gore. And the fun doesn't stop there. The festival will also offer Robert Rodriguez's director's cut of Planet Terror (which is awesome) and a 25th Anniversary screening (and cast reunion) of Friday the 13th Part 3. Yes, in 3-D!

Attendees will also get to check out the long-awaited DVDquel Return to House on Haunted Hill, a screening of the great-looking 30 Days of Night (and the video prequels Blood Trails), David Arquette's festival fave The Tripper, and a variety of genre titles of various shapes, sizes and nationalities. Of the Screamfest flicks we've seen, we've already given a strong seal of approval on the quiet but creepy Alone, the robust zest of Wrong Turn 2, the Pakistani lunacy known as Hell's Ground, , the freakishly ferocious Inside, and the apocalyptic awesomeness that is The Signal. Plus I keep hearing that Shrooms is pretty amusing, Buried Alive is gruesome, and Storm Warning is really solid.

I make no apologies: This flick is a whole lot of good, gory fun. A follow-up to the 2003 Rob Schmidt movie Wrong Turn -- which focused on a bunch of young adults who stumble across some vicious mutant cannibals in the woods of West Virginia -- Wrong Turn 2: Dead End provides a really amusing way for our latest victims to end up in trouble: They're the contestants on a Survivor-style reality series -- and let's just say the program's location scouts were rrrrreally stupid. Because our six contestants (and a few poor producers) are actually tramping around Mutant Cannibal Country ... and things are about to get splattery.

From the opening kill, first-timer Joe Lynch sets the pace quite slickly: This is going to be a fast-paced and energetic hack-'em-up, one that's not even remotely afraid of doling out big buckets of gooey gore. No, it's not a "bleak and disturbing" sort of horror flick, but one that approaches the violence (and the viscera) with a wink, an arched eyebrow, and a solid little elbow in the ribs. Indeed, if there's one major difference between Wrong Turn 2 and its predecessor, it's that the original was pretty darn stone-faced, while the sequel hits the screen with tongue planted firmly in cheek. (But yes, it's still pretty creepy on occasion.)

Here's my impersonation of a conversation that goes down 294 times a day in video stores' horror sections around the country:

Gorehound #1: "Hey, let's get this: Wrong Turn 2: Dead End!"

Splatfreak #2: "No. I never heard of it. Did that even play in theaters?"

GH: "Um, I don't think so. But is that your basis for quality? If so we could rent ... this."

SF: "Turistas? Dude. Stop."

GH: "OK then. How about An American Haunting or Stay Alive or See No Evil or The Covenant or Blood and C..."

SF: "Stop! Dang, I think my ears are bleeding."

GH: "Heck, all these remakes get theatrical play. Let's do a triple feature of The Hitcher, The Fog and House of W ... Ow! Why'd you hit me?"

SF: "Because you're shattering my world! I was raised to believe that quality horror films get theatrical releases, while only the lamest cack imaginable goes straight to video!"

GH: "Yeah, well. Where'd you first see Dog Soldiers? And Behind the Mask? And May?"

SF: "On DVD."

Ta-da. Point made. Now, let's make one thing clear. If I said to you "Fox is releasing a DVD called Wrong Turn 2: Dead End next month," I'd completely understand if you rolled your eyes, audibly scoffed and muttered something like "life's too short, nerd" before sitting down to watch, I dunno, Meet the Fockers. Well first off that would be very rude. Second, you'd be missing out on a surprisingly entertaining little horror flick! I know, I was shocked too! First came a rather positive review from Fangoria (and they're not an outfit to suffer lame sequels lightly) and then I got a chance to review the flick for FEARnet, plus Jette will be giving it a spin at next month's Fantastic Fest. Yes, that's right: A "direct-to-video horror sequel" is getting a true-blue (theatrical!) world premiere at one of the coolest genre fests in the country. Fox probably had to strike ONE print just for this festival!

Yes, it's a movie made mainly for the old-school splatter fans, and no, it's not some revolutionary piece of genre cinema -- but when a DVD sequel turns out to be more entertaining than 75% of the theatrically-released horror movies, I figure that's worthy of a Fan Rant. So stop back after you've seen the flick, mutant fans, and tell me I'm not nuts and just starved for ONE half-decent horror flick.

And while you're at it, give the original Wrong Turn another shot. It's a basic, solid terror flick.

For your mid-week movie nourishment:

• Earlier this month, Christopher Campbell posted that Latinos were protesting Ken Burns' latest documentary. Burns, who is the PBS powerhouse that brought us Jazz and Civil War has been working on The War, a documentary that details the WWII as told the residents of 4 towns. Yesterday, the filmmaker agreed to re-cut the documentary to include the war contributions of Latino and American Indian service members. At first, PBS declared that they would make an add-on for the film about the efforts of these groups. Now, it will be fully incorporated with the help of Hector Galan, who has produced PBS docs including Chicano! History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement. The pair have to to hurry -- the DVD deadline for the film is this June, so they've got to conduct interviews, write, shoot and re-edit the documentary.
• Korean actress Moon So-Ri is the latest woman to sign on to The Best Moment of Our Life, the upcoming film by Yim Soon-rye. The feature, which has already signed on Kim Jeong-eun, Kim Ji-young and Jo Eun-ji, is about the Korean women's handball team while they were at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Moon will play the headstrong lead player of the team and Jeon-eun will be the team's leader. The team made it to the finals, defeating Brazil and France, before losing the gold to Denmark with a score of 38-36. The actresses have their work cut out for them -- before shooting, they will have 3 months of handball training, and the film is still planned to be released later this year.
• Years ago, my dad and I were sitting around at a wedding, musing over what my one-day wedding would entail. King Crimson was going to be the band, and Henry Rollins was going to officiate, of course. Unfortunately, I didn't think to write a sequel to a horror movie and schmooze the singer-writer-performer-actor in time, and Joe Lynch has stolen the idea. It seems that Rollins had a great experience with Lynch during the filming of Wrong Turn 2, and when the director asked, he couldn't say no. Fie! Rollins, if you're reading, what could I do to schmooze you? I'll accept you heading the nuptials, or being the man to slip the ring onto my finger.
  

There's nothing I enjoy more than reporting casting for a bad sequel that's heading straight to DVD. Usually, I'd make a few jokes here but, in this film's case, I don't really need to say much ... in fact, its title says it all. Henry Rollins (Remember him?) has signed on to co-star in Wrong Turn 2: An Even Wronger Turn. Okay, that's not the actual title, but I had to slip at least one joke into this first paragraph.

Rollins, who currently hosts his own show on IFC, has appeared in some weird roles over the years. From Lost Highway to Johnny Mnemonic to Feast, the ex-rocker turned spoken word guru has apparently done it all .... but with little recognition. Now he's taking it to the next level of "I still need to pay my rent" by accepting a role in the sequel to a movie that no one really watched. (Well, except for a bunch of horny teenage boys who saw the name Eliza Dushku in the credits.)

Directed by Joe Lynch, Wrong Turn 2 will reportedly be a prequel to the first one. The story (seriously, does it matter if Eliza isn't in it?) is said to revolve around the parents of those in-bred freaks from the original. Lovely. However, for those of you who dig Rollins' IFC show, on May 13th he interviews one of my favorite writer/directors, P.T. Anderson, as well as a performance by Aimee Mann. Now, that I will actually watch.