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How to Behave: A Guide to Modern Manners for the Socially Challenged

Caroline Tiger

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Book

Is there any polite way to shush a chatty person at the movies? Should roller bladers be passed on...

Man vs. Child: One Dad's Guide to the Weirdness of Parenting

Doug Moe

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Book

Mums have hundreds of parenting advice books willing to tackle the more cringe-inducing questions of...

Dissecting the Criminal Corpse: Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England: 2016

Elizabeth T. Hurren

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Book

Those convicted of homicide were hanged on the public gallows before being dissected under the...

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Hampton Sides

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Book

The age of exploration was drawing to a close, yet the mystery of the North Pole remained....

Jeremy Workman recommended Letter Never Sent (TBD) in Movies (curated)

Letter Never Sent (TBD)

TBD | Drama

(0 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"For years, this fairly obscure Russian movie has probably been my favorite movie. I first had a crummy Russian VHS with blocky Soviet-era lettering (in which the movie title was translated as Unmailed Letter). Then in the early 2000s, my friend somehow found me a bootleg DVD. (Shoutout to Bilge!) Miraculously, in 2012, I saw it listed on Criterion’s “Coming Soon” page. I remember when I saw that, I just couldn’t believe it. This story of survival in the Siberian wilderness is simply the greatest “tough terrain” adventure movie ever made (with apologies to another Criterion fave, The Wages of Fear). Both director Mikhail Kalatozov and his cinematographer, Sergei Urusevsky, seem half-crazed, and my jaw drops repeatedly while watching. Kalatozov is one of cinema’s boldest stylists, and there are a zillion shots in this movie that blow me away. Yet, despite the cinematic fireworks, the most affecting shots might actually be the many meticulous close-ups of the explorers’ faces, which foreground the raw human drama unfolding before your eyes."

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LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Wrong Turn (2003) in Movies

Mar 4, 2021

Wrong Turn (2003)

2003 | Horror

6.4

(11 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Wrong Turn is pretty standard early-2000s cannibal/slasher horror, but manages to be memorable thanks to a decent cast playing tolerable characters.

The cannon fodder teenagers in this are also pretty standard, with the exception of the two leads played by Eliza Dushku and Desmond Harrington. They don't come across as the usual empty headed victims that make stupid decisions, and as a result, it's easy to become invested in their fight for survival.

This first entry in the franchise is a far cry from the more digital looking, torture porn leaning sequels, and boasts some decent practical gore. The designs of the mountain men are suitably unsettling, thanks to Shane Mahan and Stan Winston, and it's easy to see why Thee Finger became something of a horror icon following this film's release.

Wrong Turn won't set your world aflame, but it's a competent and watchable horror that stands well on its own, and is a pretty fun, especially when compared to it's plethora of shitty sequels (the second one isn't too bad to be fair...)