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Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - Unrated
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (9th November 2009). |
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The Film
 "The Godfather: Part II" (1974). "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" (1980). "Aliens" (1986). "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" (1991). "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992). "The Dark Knight" (2008). What do all these movies have in common? Timeless sequels that blew their predecessors away. I only bring them up here to suit the arrival of another classic sequel that will go down in the history books alongside the aforementioned movies. OK, maybe I’m blowing it a little out of proportion, but damn it, "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" was such a humongous leap in the right direction from the crappy "Wrong Turn" (2003), that it just felt good saying it. The original "Wrong Turn" was terrible. It was too reserved to be a campy gore flick and too restrained to be a mind bending, tasteless exercise in horror. It was just too bland. However, any problems I had with the first film were nixed in the sequel. Here we have a much more focused movie, knowing that it is going to take it too far sometimes, but still have an overall campy vibe. Let me get to the story before it sounds like I’m gushing too much. A "Survivor" (2000-Present) rip-off reality TV show is being filmed in the woods, and on the way to the shoot, one of the contestants (Kimberly Caldwell) is killed by some crazy hillbillies by manner of one of the best gore-kills I have seen in years. With the tone set up, we cut to the filming location where the contestants are getting ready to start, and host Col. Dale Murphy (Henry Rollins) is setting up the rules. The game is a take on a post-apocalyptic scenario, and is given enough rules on screen to warrant an actual television show. As time goes on, players are picked off by crazy in-bred freaks who live in the area, and the show is more or less cancelled. One of the main reasons that "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" worked so well for me is the step up in cast. The first film, who’s casting I compared to a Cinemax soft core porno, was nearly unwatchable due to the lazy performances being trudged around. However, the sequel shows off the acting talents of a few people that I am now officially excited about. The two stand out performances are that of Henry Rollins, who just always kicks ass in anything that he does, and that of Texas Battle, who plays Jake, an injured football player who is the sympathetic heart this movie needs. The film also contains some characters I hated, but thankfully they die in such perfect ways, I have to wonder if I was meant to hate them from the start. If I had to have one complaint of "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End", it would be that the freaks here look nowhere near as good as the Stan Winston-produced monsters in the first film. Whereas in "Wrong Turn" the freaks seemed visceral and feral, here they seem almost smart, having dinner together, and coming off as just people with big heads. I wish the freaks had looked just, well, more freaky. In the end, I guess what I like about "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" the most is that it just knew what it was, and worked with it. The film calls back to such classics as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), "Day of the Dead" (1980), and "Battle Royale" (2000), and this let me know which company the film wanted to rest with, and I bought it.
Video
"Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" is presented in widescreen 1.78:1 1080p 24/fps HD picture mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression, and sadly, it doesn’t live up to my enjoyment of the film. Many of the shots came off as looking too “DVD” and in this day and age, I just can’t stand that. Most of the shots, especially one taking place outdoors, look pretty abysmal, with all sorts of noise flying around the screen. While the film doesn’t rely heavily on the “look”, the movie comes off as extremely bland looking, and for less forgiving people, that might be a deal breaker when it comes to enjoying this movie.
Audio
"Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" is offered in an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, with optional French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround. The audio of "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" outshines it’s video, but not by a whole lot. While there were scenes in the first "Wrong Turn" that I was jumping out of my seat due strictly to the auditory work being done, I never got that out of the sequel. All the sounds come out clear, and I never had any problems understanding dialogue in scenes laden with loud sound effects, but I just never had a moment where I jumped, or felt the presence of the scenery around me. Optional subtitles are included in English and Spanish.
Extras
"Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" sports a few extras in the form of two audio commentaries and some featurettes. They are explained further below: First up is an audio commentary track featuring director Joe Lynch and stars Erica Leerhsen and Henry Rollins. Going into this commentary, I expected to hear Rollins talk about how gnarly the movie is, but what I got was a total surprise. Lynch spouts off a fountain of legitimate horror knowledge and theory, dissecting the movie in a manner that is neither pretentious nor uninteresting. Sadly, I would have liked to have heard a little more from Rollins, but that’s just the fan part of me. Thankfully, Lynch comes off as a guy who knows his genre, and his love of it appears to be legitimate. Next up is a second audio commentary with screenwriters Turi Meyer and Al Septin. Here, I expect to hear two young writers enthusiastically talk about the movie, but I was surprised at not only how old Meyer and Septin sounded, but at how mild mannered they were. They sounded like grandparents talking about stories from their past rather than two guys who wrote a movie in which Henry Rollins shoots people with TNT strapped to arrows. They take a more pretentious route in their discussion of the movie, but at times is funny how taken aback they are by the on-screen violence, and just mention how their parents will never see this. Next up is "More Blood, More Guts: The Making of Wrong Turn 2" featurette, which runs for 9 minutes and 32 seconds. Here, the cast and crew are interviewed with a main focus on Joe Lynch. He reinforces his love of the horror genre, but one thing I found annoying was how gonzo everyone was trying to make him sound. It was irritating to hear “Oh he’s just so crazy” over and over again. It was the exact opposite of what made me like the guy so much on his commentary track. Next up is "On Location with P-Nut" featurette, which runs for 2 minutes and 14 seconds. Here, and this is going to sound like a joke, we follow the bassist for the band 311 as he films the making of one of the more disturbing parts of the movie from the sidelines. That’s right. P-Nut. From the band 311. What? This feature came off as extremely annoying, as it reminded me of one of those skate videos in which everyone tries to get the attention of the cameraman, inter cut with sped up footage of people walking around. Last we have "Making Gore Look Good" featurette, which runs for 11 minutes and 32 seconds. Here we are offered a making-of aspect on each of the movies extremely gory deaths, and I have to say I really enjoyed this feature. I’m a big fan of practical gore, and this seemed to be a celebration to the subtle art that is splitting a woman in half, but not before her entrails hit the floor. This is the sort of feature that just serves to remind the audience that the days of awesome deaths aren’t thrown to the computer graphic wayside, and for that, I am thankful.
Overall
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