Wrong Turn (2003) review

Publication Date: 05-31-2026

Dir. Rob Schmidt

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

In the day and age of unoriginality and persistent remakes, we must treasure the brave and audacious horror film that know they pack in a typical formula, but are still determined to go for broke and sometimes even surprise us. That is exactly what Rob Schmidt’s horror film Wrong Turn does. It has its typical side, with the formula and pretty dense characters, but it also has its creative side, showing off impressive camerawork, cinematography, and very amusing effects work. It is, what some might call, a joyous bloody excursion.

The story’s plot is standard fare; a rushed man (Desmond Harrington) takes an unexpected detour to avoid heavy traffic and collides with a group of teenagers who are sex-crazed, pot-smoking goofballs who have got a flat tire. There’s no signal, no gas station for miles, so some of them inevitably start walking. It is too inevitable that some will stay put and wind up getting hacked to bits by deranged, backwoods lunatics, who play by their own rules. Their own rules involve jumping, screaming, running around senselessly, and shooting anything that moves.

One will say that Wrong Turn is just simple horror fluff, resurrected on every horror cliché. In a way, they’re not wrong. The film has more going for it than a lot of other modern pieces. It’s 2003, and the seventies style of horror seemed dead. Films didn’t want to go back to the past to see what made films like The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre special. Director Rob Schmidt did. He went back and followed a blueprint once used by classic seventies horror. The turnout doesn’t involve any audience-winks, pointless sex scenes, or implausible irony. It’s sophisticated and sometimes even wholly creepy.

I think the main reason for its creepy-vibe is the fact that the film knows the importance of suspense and atmosphere. We get some pretty decent buildup before the inevitable kill, and the delightful unease of the woodsy setting is utilized very well. Similar to how Eli Roth evoked atmosphere and setting to tell his story in Cabin Fever. The only problem was, with that film, the payoff was a little loose and short. Here, Wrong Turn doesn’t stop at look, and tries to go the extra mile.

If anything, the film is entertaining. Short, dark, entertaining, and interesting. It’s too bad the film didn’t want to go for the full look of a seventies picture, by adding film grain and dirt to the lens to give the appearance of a cheap Grindhouse film. I could see that intensifying the whole experience, making it scarier than it currently is. But as it stands, Wrong Turn is tolerable horror-fare and a low-key, brutally honest advertisement for GPS.