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Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009)
Back in 2003 I was pleasantly surprised by the theatrically released horror film “Wrong Turn”. Going into it I wasn’t expecting much, but it ended up being a pretty solid wilderness/survival flick and I’ve managed to go back and watch it a few times since. The movie manages to hold up and is one of the more solid horror flicks to come out this decade. Then a few years later I kind of cringed at the though of someone making a straight to DVD sequel to it. But in all honesty “Wrong Turn 2: Dead End” ended up being one hell of a flick. It’s filled to the brim with gore, it’s over the top and in the end it is basically a fun and enjoyable movie (much to my surprise). So after that I got word that there was another installment of the series on the way and my excitement started to build. Considering we’ve seen franchises get created that had no purpose or reason to be made I was thinking that we were on our way to getting another GREAT franchise in the world of horror and I couldn’t wait. Would “Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead” insure that would happen? Let’s take a look shall we?
“Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead” starts out with two couples out for a camping weekend and are immediately attacked by our favorite deformed rednecks. Then the story jumps to a prison in which the inmates seem to be planning something big. It ends up being a group of convicts being transported to another prison when their bus goes through the area of West Virginia in which the crazy rednecks reside. One thing leads to another and the bus is out of commission and the cons are trying to high tail it out of there. Of course, the police and our deranged hillbillies aren’t to fond of this idea and we end up having a good old battle pitting the convicts versus the rednecks.
Now in theory the story of this movie sounds awesome. I mean when it comes to a franchise in which they mainly just take the deformed hillbillies and put them against different people and different scenarios’s this one tops the cake! Too bad all of the terrible CGI and poor prosthetic effects ruin that at just about every turn. Although the second film in the series had some less than stellar CG moments, it more than makes up for it during some other scenes that are completely practical. In this movie however there is scene after scene of pointless and just plain awful CG that would take anyone completely out of the movie.
The acting in the film is also something else that leaves a lot to desire. Not one single cast member is very convincing in their roles and by the end of it you’ll wondering why you wasted you time even listening to these people, or at least that’s how I felt. The movie is just filled with constant scenes of people arguing and after a while I was hoping someone would just drop a bomb on the whole area killing everyone and ending my misery. Sadly, this didn’t happen.
Considering that the original film was made by director Rob Schmidt who is more than a capable director and the sequel was made by Joe Lynch a guy who understands what fans like to see I have no clue what they were thinking allowing Declan O’Brien to direct this one. His credentials include a few Sci-Fi channel movies that are nothing less than completely nonsense. This was a film that I didn’t even think he could screw up and alas, he did. The movie is just completely devoid of anything even fun, entertaining or redeeming and it’s a waste of time for the viewer.
Overall I really didn’t like “Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead” whatsoever. The movie dragged on to holy hell, the plot was monotonous and after about the first twenty minutes or so I would have just shut it off if I didn’t have to review it. It’s going to anger a lot of fans of the series and personally I find that to be a shame. It’s a simple formula for a movie and they couldn’t even bother to get it right. It reeks of a half assed effort from beginning to end and call me crazy, but I think fans of the series deserved more than this half hearted effort. AVOID.
Rating - *
-Ed Demko
