"Wrong Turn": More Than Just Dumb Fun?
Alright, so I finally got around to watching "Wrong Turn" (the OG, 2003, not any of its, uh, progeny). Look, I went in expecting a brainless slasher flick – and it delivered in spades. Gore? Check. Attractive people making monumentally stupid decisions? Double check. Hideously deformed cannibalistic mountain men? You betcha. But here's where it gets interesting (at least, to me). While it's obviously playing into every backwoods horror trope imaginable (Deliverance, anyone?), did anyone else pick up on a faint whiff of social commentary? I mean, the whole thing is predicated on Chris (Desmond Harrington) taking, well, a wrong turn. He's driven, educated, part of the urban elite...and his shortcut literally puts him on a collision course with a very different way of life. And that collision unleashes hell. Am I reading too much into it, or is there a subtle suggestion that our obliviousness to (and perhaps disdain for) rural communities allows festering resentments to, well, hatch murderous, inbred cannibals? Specifically, the scene where they find the cannibal's house and all the… tools… inside. It felt deliberately over-the-top, grotesque in a way that almost felt theatrical. Like, the director (whoever was responsible for this madness) was almost saying, "Look at this caricature! What does it represent to YOU?" Or am I just completely off my rocker here? Would love to hear other people's takes, especially on whether anyone else thinks there's a hint of subversive messaging buried beneath the viscera.
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