The film starts out with real-life American Idol reject, Kimberly Caldwell, driving through the West Virginia backwoods on her way to a yet undisclosed reality show taping. She’s lost and late, and calls her agent (played over the phone by comedian Patton Oswalt – Why Patton? Why?) for a little direction. While on the phone, she turns off the beaten path and loses cell phone signal. It’s pretty much a carbon copy of the opening to Wrong Turn but reference can be a good thing when done right, especially when setting up a sequel. Throw in a Patton Oswalt cameo, and we’re off to a pretty good start. She glances down to fidget with her phone and when we pan back up – SMASH! She hits something, or somebody, scurrying across the road. Let the ‘horror’ begin!
Upon closer inspection we find that the victim is more than a little disfigured, and it has nothing to do with the accident at hand. Here, we get our first taste of hillbilly horror and gore. It is one of the better splatter effects I’ve seen in quite some time. Hell, it’s one of the best splatter effects that I’ve ever seen. Period. It involves cleaving a woman in two, long ways, with an axe and it is both stylish, and flawless in its execution. The killers then drag her remains, one half at a time, across the old road (again flawlessly), and we get our “directed by” credit, signifying the official start of the madness. I was floored, and here we are only five minutes in. Wow! What was I in store for? Turns out that was as good as it was going to get. It’s like eating your desert before you’ve even ordered dinner.
From its ridiculous reality show premise (because we have to make it relevant to the times, right?), to its hatable cast and characters, likened more to its burnable script and direction, Wrong Turn 2 has very little going for it. What it does have are its kills and its overall nastiness therein. They are ultra-violent, mean-spirited, nauseating, and for the most part are executed quite well. There is another memorable effects scene with a hatchet to the head that is very unexpected, and totally original.
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