It's the last one they'll ever make...
Rated R for extreme gory violence!!!
OTHER TITLES: DETOUR MORTEL (French for DETOUR TO DEATH); KM. 666 DESVIO AL INFIERNO (Spanish for KM. 666 JOURNEY INTO HELL); FATAL ROAD or TORTURE ROAD (Chinese/Mandarin); CAMINO HACIA EL TERROR (Spanish for ROAD TO TERROR, title in Argentina); Halálos Kitérő (Hungarian for LETHAL BYPASS); Droga bez powrotu (Polish for TURN BACK); PANICO NA FLORESTA (Portugues (Brasil) for PANIC IN THE FOREST; ESCOLHA PERIGOSA (Portugues (Portugal) for DANGEROUS CHOICE); DEAD CAMP (Korean Title)
This story takes place in the Appalachian Mountains of rural West Virginia, and when the violence is momentarily on hold in a few scenes, we are actually afforded a view of the beauty of this wilderness. There is a scene from the watchtower that shows a high viewpoint and it has a mellow golden-gray lighting that is surprisingly pretty. Alright enough of my asthetic appreciations, onto the story!!!
CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!!! SPOILERS AND MORE SPOILERS LAY DIRECTLY AHEAD. NO TRESPASSING UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE!!! WE WILL SHOOT YOU ON SIGHT IF WE SEE YOU TRESPASSING!!! (I got that from a sign tacked onto a fence in Auburn, California!!! So there, you overly sensitive West Virginians!!! We here in California have crazed mountain men too!!!)
Chris Flynn, a young doctor who is hoping for a new job in Raleigh, N.C., is en route to an important interview when he is stopped by an accident where a big rig spilled dangerous toxins all over the freeway. Unwilling to wait 2 hours while they clean the mess up, Chris flips a U and heads back the way he came and happens upon a service station belonging to a really ugly guy named Ric with very bad dental hygiene!!! He also drinks Pepto Bismol as though it were Gatorade!!! Gross to say the least!!! Chris politely asks Yuck Mouth Cause I Don't Brush an alternate route to Raleigh, but Yuck Mouth rudely evades any straight answers and poor Chris is on his own. He uses Yuck Mouth's map and sees a "Bear Mountain Road" which looks like it will lead back to the interstate, past that big rig accident. I say again, poor Chris!!!
Chris drives along the dirt route and literally smacks into the back of an SUV which is parked directly in the middle of the road. It is here where we meet 5 campers who evidently are as lost from civilization as Chris is. There is Scott (Jeremy Sisto), his fiancee Carly (Emmanuelle Chriqui), Francine (Lindy Booth) and Kevin (Evan Zegers). Oh yeah, and a SINGLE gal who is quite pretty, Jessie (Eliza Dushku). I was prepared for an annoyingly predictable romance to bloom betwixt the YOUNG HANDSOME DOCTOR and the PRETTY SINGLE WOMAN WHOSE BOYFRIEND HAD RECENTLY DUMPED HER. I was surprisingly pleased with the outcome of this part of the story, but more about that later!!!
Jessie discovers that someone deliberately strung a bale of barb wire across Bear Mountain Road to trip up, or blow out the tires of, anyone coming. Angry and spooked, Jessie, Chris, Scott and Carly decide to walk ahead and find a phone while Kevin and Francine stay behind to "guard" their valuables in the 2 disabled cars. On their walk, we get to know that Scott and Carly are engaged, and they display great affection to each other which is believable, without any groping or fondling. He gives her piggy back rides and seems very protective of her. They both have some good comedy lines while the four are searching for help. I like Emmanuelle Chriqui. Yeah, she wears a rather skimpy top and shows cleavage, but she plays a girl who is not a bimbo, a bitch or a conniving jealous type. She and Jessie are good friends, and there is no spiteful bitchiness between them, which other filmmakers always throw in for "entertainment" value.
Besides, I must throw this in: Carly and Franny are in skimpy tops, and so is Jessie (sort of) but hey, look at Chris and Scott, with their shirts unbuttoned, showing off their chest hairs??? LOL!!! I liked Scott's daisy necklace too!!!
Their Bear Mountain Road comes to a dead end and they are forced to turn back. Seeing a plume of chimbly smoke, they find an unsettling looking wood shack surrounded by beat up and wrecked cars. This reminded me of a lot of "You Might Be A Redneck If..." jokes from Jeff Foxworthy!!!
Hopefully the mountain folk in the cabin will have one of them new fangled teleophones, hopefully at least one with a rotary dial!!! The frightened foursome ventures inside, to find flies a-buzzin, somethin' a-stinkin, and a pot of...stew??? a-boilin'!!! After Chris and Jessie find lots of clues that the friendly mountain folk mightn't be so friendsly, the fairly swiftly decide to flee the scene, but alas, Carly has to pee and now the owners of this hell-hole are a-comin' up the driveway!!!
The now terrified four are hiding, while three guys deposit a mutilated, dying (you can see her pulse throbbing in her neck as the blood slowly drizzles toward Chris and Jessie hiding under a bed-bug infested cot!!!)Francine to the floor and prepare to make delicious Francine Fricassee!!! Scott and Carly hide in the bathroom and witness Francine get chopped up for supper. After this scene, Carly is VERY UNDERSTANDABLY upset and in a state of shock. Some viewers accused her of being the "whiny" one, but to me, she was responding very realistically. She kept saying she didn't want to run, she just couldn't. She almost prefered to stand still and die, like a rabbit in the middle of the road.
The four manage to sneak out of the Cannibal Cabin, almost. One of the three hulks wakes up just as they are out the door, and Scott comes up with the idea that one should lead the three freaks in one direction while the other three steal their Hillbilly-Mobile and book it!!! Poor Scott gets three arrows in the back for his brave trouble, and Carly becomes even more understandably freaked out. Who would have believed a camping trip would cost her her fiance!!!???
The deformed hillbillies add Scrambled Scotty Succotash to their fine menu of four star dining at The Cannibal Cabin and are dead set on tasting Crunchy Carly Chriqui, Chrispy Chris the Delectable Doctor and oh, boy!!! Jambalaya Jessie would taste mighty fine!!! With some moonshine!!! Mmmmmmmmm...
The three survivors (it is revealed that Kevin was butchered too) drive as far as they can in the icky tow-truck owned by the Gruesome Threesome and come upon a watchtower. Naturally their efforts to find help fail and the only response they get is the Hungry Hungry Hillbillies again!!!
Poor Carly meets with a particularly gory end, and I got even madder at those jerks who called her whiny!!! The poor thing was trying to be as brave as she could!!! Give her some credit for crying out loud!!! I'm scared of heights too!!! And with an ax wielding deformed murderer nearby???!!! It's a wonder she was able to think at all!!! All I could say was, at least she was no longer suffering and could now join her beloved Scott in that Paradise Wedding Suite in the sky!!! (heehee, sniff!!!)
Now only Jessie and Chris are left, and their desperate flight from the Horrid Hillbillies evolves swiftly into even more violence and bloodshed. You see some chemistry building between Chris and Jessie, but thankfully, no smooching and lovey dovey shit that would have just turned my stomach even more than all the carnage did!!! Jessie proves to be a worthy heroine, not a bawling damsel in distress, and Chris is a hero we can cheer in good conscience.
Did the Cannibals get their just desserts (pun intended)??? No!!! Not only did they not get to eat Jambalaya Jessie or Delectable Doctor, but they didn't really die at the end!!! They were burnt beyond recognition, surely, (as if they were recognizable in the first place!!!) but they weren't dead. Will there be a sequel??? Who knows??? Jeremy Sisto will most likely NOT be in any sequel, since Scott is most certainly ground up inside their tummies...ewww!!! But I might see a sequel anyway!!!
A properly horrifying horror film!!! A- is the grade it deserves!!! I don't really know why the minus, except that I wished Jeremy would have been in it more!!!
The Cast
Desmond Harrington as CHRIS
Eliza Dushku as JESSIE
Emmanuelle Chriqui as CARLY
Jeremy Sisto as SCOTT
Lindy Booth as FRANCINE
Kevin Zegers as EVAN
Ted Clark as ONE-EYE
Garry Robbins as SAWTOOTH
and Julian Richings as THREE FINGER
Directed by Rob Schmidt
The Blue Site: WRONG TURN review
Fan review by Jeanette
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LINKS
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