My Thoughts After Re-watching Wrong Turn (2003)

My wife and I both love the film Wrong Turn but it had been quite a while since we last saw it. So, when I came across the film on Amazon Prime last night, it was an easy decision to watch it again.

Here are some of the thoughts I had while re-watching the film:

I think one of the reasons why I like this film is it is one of the few that doesn't bore the audience with pointless exposition and character backstories. There are bits and pieces revealed. Jessie (Eliza Dushku) recently broke up with her boyfriend, Chris (Desmond Harrington) is a medical student while Carly (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and Scott (Jeremy Sisto) are recently engaged, but unlike with many other movies, we aren't subjected to seeing them pack their bags, stop at a store for supplies, etc.

The movie also makes good use of jump scares. Some movies overuse that tactic to the point you pretty much expect it. This film manages to have some of those scares coming out of nowhere, keeping you on the edge of your seat because you never know when an ax or arrow might fly past someone's head.

It's unclear why Jessie and her friends were traveling on the same dirt road as Chris. The first thought would be they were trying to avoid the same traffic jam as he was, but Chris only found the road by reading the map at the gas station and they didn't stop there. And while you could argue they were looking for a remote area to hike in but, again, that would require someone to know about the area in advance and would only really make sense if one member of their group was working with the cannibals.

The characters in this movie are unrealistically tough. Maybe not all of them but certainly some, including Chris, who walked away from a car crash that should have left him at least a lot more shaken up and Jessie, who landed hard on a tree limb but seemed unfazed by it. The latter should have had a broken bone or two or at least a nasty bruise.

Did Carly ever pee? A big part of the reason this movie happens is her insistence on finding a toilet, keeping them inside the cannibals' house longer than they probably would have otherwise. Yet when she finds the bathroom, she snoops around instead and they were running for their lives afterwards. Did she wet herself or just forget she had to go?

They should have gone back to the house. The first thing that would have come to MY mind after seeing the cannibals driving away in a different direction rather than following me is they know the woods better and probably plan on cutting me off somewhere. Instead of pushing forward, they would have been better going back down the hill to the house to see if any of the vehicles still ran and try to find some weapons before going the opposite direction the cannibals saw them heading.

Leaving the cave so soon was also a mistake. The watchtower was arguably a dumb hiding spot because it was in plain sight (though it still probably would have worked if it hadn't been for the radio drawing attention from the cannibals). The cave, however, was well-hidden, giving Chris and Jessie a relatively safe space. It would have been smarter for them to stay there until it was dark again rather than go out in broad daylight when they were still being hunted.

It felt as though they wanted to be caught.

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