Rent Wrong Turn 5 (2012)

Spoilers follow ... - Wrong Turn 5 review by NP

In 2003, ‘Wrong Turn’ – the story of a group of friends menaced by deformed hillbillies – was successful enough to spawn a number of sequels. Whilst ‘2’ had a cinematic release, all subsequent instalments were straight-to-video.

There are times when I’m in the mood for entertainment like ‘Wrong Turn 5.’ It is very rare to find anyone in this film who isn’t under 25 and blemish free – except for the hillbillies, of course (even Camilla Arfwedson as young Sheriff Angela Carter is the ‘sexiest Sheriff’ around). This time the outcasts are mentored by Doug Bradley playing Maynard Odets, which sounds like an anagram of something. Bradley is famous for playing Pinhead in the ‘Hellraiser’ films; here, he even addresses the three cannibals as ‘pinheads’. It is this kind of playfulness that dissuades you from taking things too seriously.

Stoned, horny, rock-loving teens possessed of no character whatsoever get menaced by the usual tatty protagonists roughly identifiable from previous ‘Wrong Turn’ films. Three Finger, Saw Tooth and One Eye are their names. Whereas the original entry into this series very often obscured the faces of the convincingly made-up monsters, subsequent productions were more blatant with them, which is unusual as (presumably) tightening budgets have rendered the make-ups slapdash and a lot less realistic.

This is cheerfully empty-headed slasher fare, with pretties being gorily despatched by checked-shirt-wearing lumberjacks with deformities. Shrieking catwalk models being dismembered very loudly with cartoon gore: that’s what you’re going to get. Into the mix, Bradley relishes playing a grinning Davros to his manically giggling Daleks. Whilst this doesn’t climb to the perversities of the following ‘Wrong Turn 6’, it presents a heightened sleaziness about its ‘characters’, which is some kind of development. You know what you’re going to get from this. If you’re in the mood, there’s little to stop you enjoying it.