Wrong Turn

After the group of friends venture from the trail, they become lost in the woods. Afraid they are being hunted, they start to panic. One of the group, Adam (Dylan McTee), is dragged through the woods by a trap. When he regains consciousness, his friends are threatening two skull clad individuals who appear to have taken him hostage. He comes up behind one of them and bashes him over the head with a large log several times.

It’s more interesting to like the bad guy, Venable (Bill Sage), and the bad guy in this film had some strangely redeeming qualities. He was leading a community in a way that had been done for hundreds of years. When first encountering the group of friends, he explained that they has intruded onto their land and had bludgeoned one of their members. Naturally, there is a twist. They’re methods of justice tend to be a little more literal and quite shocking for anyone outside the community.

One of the most tense parts of the movie was when they accidentally tripped one of the traps laid in the woods. When the trap triggered, a giant log rolled down the hill. Everyone was scrambling, but unfortunately, not everyone made it out alive.

The movie can definitely feel preachy sometimes. When the group sits down and gets in an argument with a local about why millennials are “winning” at life, the scene feels contrived and a forced. About halfway through the film the friends ultimately succumb to their pursuers, followed by an odd turn for the main character, Jen (Charlotte Vega). Once they are captured, Jen suddenly becomes a weapons expert. She is able to fire a bow and arrow with remarkable accuracy, and throw a knife like she has been doing it all of her life. Not only does this change what the movie is about (even though the bad guys really not being that bad), but it really destroys anything to like about the film. It removes the desperation for survival when it allows the main character to become a woman warrior.