Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011)
Review by Jude Felton
As I have always stated, I am not a prejudicial reviewer. I honestly don’t care as to whether a movie is independent or from the big studios. On the same note I am not going to review movies solely because they are seen as important, or indeed cool to like. Highbrow or lowbrow means nothing to me, it all comes down to whether I garner enjoyment from the movie as to whether it gets the thumbs up or down, so to speak.
The Wrong Turn franchise started off with a good old-fashioned argument for me. I caught the first movie on the big screen back in England, and afterwards headed to the bar. I made mention of the fact that I enjoyed the Hell out of it, and I still do, and ended up getting in a heated discussion with a friend who saw it as nothing more than a rip-off. Hey, that made be as so, but it had inbreds, some great kills and Eliza Dushka in it. I shall repeat that, it had the Dush in it. Case closed, decision for the defendant.
Anyway, moving forward, I probably enjoyed Wrong Turn 2: Dead End even more that the first movie. Joe Lynch amped up the gore, gave us what is probably Henry Rollins’ best movie role yet and still featured a bevvy of fine looking ladies. It’s a bloody fun movie that I have watched many times.
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead I gave a swerve around. A friend, and critic, I respect ripped it a new ass and that was good enough for me. I have so many movies I have to watch, I am not going to waste my time on something that I expect I will not enjoy. That didn’t mean I was willing to forego watching this 4th movie in the franchise. Sure, it is directed by Declan O’Brien, who also gave us the third movie, but it is also a prequel so I had no concerns about missing any plot elements that might have arisen in the third movie. Anyone notice that prequels are really popular right now? Hmm. Oh, and the prospect of moving the inbreds into a new environment was quite appealing to me.
The new environment is a great big old psychiatric hospital, once again in West Virginia, that houses Saw-Tooth, Three-Finger and One-Eye, our illustrious trio of wilderness-dwelling cannibals before they were let loose.
The plot itself is basic, and let’s face we don’t need more, and shows how our trio break free of their captors and then, years later, play hunt the annoying college student in the now abandoned hospital. It’s a simple plot, yet it is still one riddled with gaping bloody great holes in it. But, and there is always a but, are you really going to go into a movie like this worrying about plot details? Hell no baby, I wanted to see crazy hillbilly action and copious amounts of blood, guts and gore. And that is exactly what I got. Wrong Turn 4 is a wonderfully gory movie, so much so that my wife could not watch one quite protracted death scene. It’s gore lovers delight I tell thee.
The plot, as mentioned, is wafer thin, riddled with holes and will have you screaming at the screen in disgust at some of the students (lack of) decision making skills. The acting is borderline terrible, and the script even throws in a “he took a wrong turn” as if we didn’t know. Yet, despite all this, I had a freaking blast with this movie. In turn infuriating and pure blissful cheesy goretastic fun, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings is perfect party fodder. It ain’t going to test your grey matter, and it probably won’t be remembered as fondly as the first two movies, but it is fun.
If you aren’t a fan of the franchise I really see nothing here that will change your opinion. If however you are a fan I believe you will at least have some fun with this movie, I know I did. There is a little CGI going on, from what I could tell, in some of the death scenes, but the blood sprays good and wide and you’ll get a new appreciation for fondue after watching this.
Turn on, tune out and lap up the claret my friends.
Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings is available on DVD and Blu-ray now from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
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