October 26th - WRONG TURN 2: DEAD END (2007)

Horror sequels that go direct to video/DVD usually make me laugh. Almost always they are sequels to little sleeper hits that were in theaters a few years previously. They usually star one or two of the same actors from the first film but never the main star (unless it is Sniper 2, poor Tom Berenger). The film is usually much cheaper and tries its best to be just like the first film. Wrong Turn 2: Dead End sort of falls in this category and almost succeeds as being a decent sequel at first.

I was one of the few people who enjoyed Wrong Turn. I thought it was a decent throwback to a 1970's horror film, much like The Hills Have Eyes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Although the plot was thin and the characters were annoying, I had a good time with it. And so I got pulled into the trap of the direct to DVD sequel.

Wrong Turn 2 isn't a bad film. In fact the opening actually made me jump and even grossed me out a little. It starts off with a reality TV star driving along in the woods and accidentally hitting a person in the road. When she checks on the person, he suddenly attacks her and rips her lips clean off. She frantically tries to get back to her catr, teeth fully exposed. Then another person suddenly comes from nowhere and literally cuts her body in two, showing us her steaming intestines splatter on the ground. The scene was scary, startling and had some great make up effects. I was pulled in. And then the plot began and it started to lose me from there.

A bunch of actors and crew members from a reality TV show much like Survivor meet a new deformed, cannabistic family in the woods while they are filming their new show. The actors and crew members are all walking clichés and downright annoying (save for Henry Rollins as the T.V. host)  so I was rooting for the family right from the get go. The film does a good job of killing off the people who you least expect to die but the actors left alive are so boring and so one dimensional, it was downright boring to watch.

Also, as the film moved along I noticed the make up started to look lousy and CGI started to be used all too much and it looked really phony. I could feel fatigue hit me and I had to force myself to stay awake and finish this movie. Too bad too, the opening had so much promise.