Wrong Turn (2021)

Entertainment Score: 3/5

Overall, I found that Wrong Turn (2021) is rather lacking compared to its predecessors. This movie dragged on a lot longer than I felt it needed to. There was a lot of pointless set up that was supposed to be giving us space to connect with the main characters, but it fell flat. The group of hikers that this film focuses on are one-dimensional people with no real personality given by the script or the cast of unknown actors. Their motivations were unclear from the beginning. The main girl, Jennifer, had to spend time naming all of her friends backgrounds to prove how smart and educated and diverse they were, but when it came down to it, the group was a collection of different flavors of asshole. Towards the "climax" of the film, a surprising choice is made. This would have been a great moment for character development except its from Jennifer's boyfriend, Darius, whom we know almost nothing about. This would have been a stronger moment if his character had been fleshed out more or if the choice had been made by a character that was given more of a personality to begin with. 

The [few] camera effects were gratuitous and unnecessary and felt like a poorly executed knock-off of Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (even though WT came out prior to the release of PA: NoK). Where other films in the "Wrong Turn" franchise don't shy away from the gore and horror of an on screen death, Wrong Turn (2021) makes me wish it had more gore and violence on screen. The majority of would-be-violent deaths were cut-scene at the moment of impact or otherwise conveniently left off screen. The few moments of finely crafted gore were supposed to be a shock value, but still left me desiring even more. 

Wrong Turn (2021) is a film that I'm glad I was able to watch for free, because I'm super disappointed by this movie. As someone who was a huge fan of the original series, I really was looking forward to this attempt at a reboot. However, I honestly wouldn't recommend this film to anyone except those who generally don't like horror movie because this film is a very watered down version of the original franchise.