Have you seen Wrong Turn 2 ? Did you think it was better than the original? Let me know in the comments below—just don’t invite me camping.
Released with minimal fanfare in 2007, directed by special effects legend Joe Lynch (and produced by genre icon Stan Winston), this film had no business being as good as it is. But nearly two decades later, it’s time to admit the truth: Wrong Turn 2 isn’t just a good horror sequel. It’s a masterpiece of splatstick, a razor-sharp satire of reality television, and arguably the best film in the entire franchise. wrong turn2
Rollins delivers lines like, "I'm gonna gut you like a pig," with the manic intensity of a man who has been waiting for the apocalypse his entire life. He is the proto-John Wick of low-budget horror. Watching him clear a mutant camp is worth the price of admission alone. You might think a movie about inbred cannibals isn't deep. And you’d be mostly right. But Wrong Turn 2 has a cynical, angry heart beneath the gore. Have you seen Wrong Turn 2
Here is why the mutants of West Virginia deserve a second look. The premise is gloriously simple. A reboot of a reality show called The Ultimate Survivalist: Apocalypse Edition is filming in the backwoods of West Virginia. We have the archetypes: the washed-up ex-Marine (Henry Rollins, chewing scenery like it’s his last meal), the brash alpha male, the kind-hearted fat guy, the token goth girl, and the sweet farm girl. Released with minimal fanfare in 2007, directed by
The former Black Flag frontman plays a disgraced military man trying to revive his career as a TV host. But unlike the screaming teenagers of the first film, Dale is a force of nature. When the mutants attack, he doesn't hide. He grabs an M4 carbine, straps on a vest, and literally declares war on the hillbillies.
What follows is 93 minutes of pure, unadulterated carnage as the mutants hunt the cast for sport, turning the game of survival into a very real—and very fatal—episode. Most direct-to-DVD sequels are soulless cash grabs. Wrong Turn 2 is different. Director Joe Lynch is a horror geek first and a director second. He understood the assignment.