Wrong Turn Wrong Turn is a horror/thriller film which was released in 2003 USA. Directed by Rob Schmidt, Wrong Turn is about a group of six people who find themselves lost in the West Virginia woods and chased down by “cannibalistic mountain men grossly disfigured through generations of in-breeding”. The start of the film begins with two college students being killed by deformed creatures in the West Virginia woods. From the start it gives the audience an unsettling feeling. Although, the film does not start with equilibrium it then cuts to Chris driving through the mountains on the way to a job interview; giving the audience a brief sense of equilibrium. Bulgarian linguist Tzvetan Todorov suggested that films have a certain structure and opening with equilibrium should be the starting point. However, by not opening with this it makes the atmosphere uncomfortable for the audience creating the base for the horror. He then suggested that disruption occurs; this happens in the movie when there is a traffic jam and Chris decides to go down a different path causing disequilibrium because the audience knows something bad is going to happen. However, they do not realise something is wrong until they get to the house and find human body parts. The movie then follows them trying to find a way out and escape these creatures; resulting in all of the characters being brutally killed except Chris and Jessie who manage to escape the forest which in Todorov’s theory would be the resolution. At this point we see Chris and Jessie drive off into the distance; this makes us believe a new equilibrium has been established, which in their case it has been but in the story line the plot thickens as the audience realises the mountain men are still alive and killing. Vladimir Propp devised that there were eight character types within a film which he obtained from looking at 100’s of Folk Tales. We often identify these characters from when we were young such as the villain, the hero and the princess; the fact we associate this with our childhood tend to bring back our childhood fears like the dark or monsters, thus making the horror even more frightening. Within wrong turn the ‘villain’ role is easy to distinguish as they are the monstrous murderers and are the cause for disequilibrium. Chris is seen as the ‘hero’ of the film as he helps everyone to try and escape. As well as this, he also sacrifices himself in the scene where they are trying to get the mountain men’s truck as he runs out and distracts them whilst the other run to the truck; this results in him getting shot in the leg. Chris is also the one to take the lead in most of the situations; leading them to their escape. Near the end of the film as they are about to escape down the hill, Jessie is captured by the cannibals and Chris is pushed down the hill. Instead of leaving, he holds onto the police truck that the cannibals have gotten hold of and goes back to the cabin. At this point, he drives another truck into the cabin and saves Jessie; proving himself to be the hero. However, Jessie could also be seen as the hero or the ‘helper’ because on many occasions she has saved her friends and in the scene where Chris saves her from the cabin she fights off the cannibals as well by shooting one of them and saving Chris from a fatal death. We also see a ‘false hero’ within the movie; this is Scott and obtains this role when he
acts as the decoy on the scene where they try to steal the truck. When Chris is shot he realises they won’t get to the truck in time so distracts the cannibals once again. The other three are able to get into the truck and drive away hoping to meet Scott on the path, however as Scott is running towards the truck he is shot by three arrows resulting in his death. However, through this he helped them get away and further their escape. The ‘dispatcher’ in this film is hard to tell as it is not clear. The scene where Chris takes the turn and goes to a rundown gas station where he meets a man who warns him against going that route, however Chris finds a map and decides to take it anyway. One theorist looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Calude Levi-Strauss was not interested in the way the events were arranged but looked for themes instead. Within this narrative the main binary opposition is good/evil. This is apparent through the characters, for example all of the victims can be seen as good. However, we do not sympathise with the first few characters that are killed as they partake in sex and drugs, therefore they do not seem as innocent. As well as this, their screen time isn’t as long so the audience doesn’t make any type of connection with them unlike the final characters like Jessie and Chris. The evil characters are also easy to determine as they are the cannibalistic killers. Murdering someone, especially when they get a thrill out of it, is seen as evil and wicked in our society; therefore it is obvious to the audience who the evil characters are. Bordwell and Thompson suggested that narrative ‘shapes material in terms of time and space’ and defines when, where and how these events take place. They also stated that due to this there are three time durations within a film. The first duration being the screen time, which is the time it takes for the film to show. In regards to Wrong Turn, the screen duration is 84 minutes from start to finish, in this time we see the plot unfold. The plot duration however, is around two days as on the first day is where we see the characters meet and the events start to occur. Then on the second day we see them Chris and Jessie finally escape the woods safely. The story duration at this point is unknown as we find out whilst the credits are rolling that the cannibals are still alive and have killed more people; leaving room for a sequel. This insinuates that the story hasn’t finished and there is more to come. Within this film, Wrong Turn uses many horror conventions, allowing the audience to identify certain things. For example, the narrative is set in an isolated forest; this is something most people now associate with horror movies and therefore makes it more frightening. Additionally, most of the action is set at night; giving it an unsettling and eerie atmosphere and playing on childhood fears once again. Also, a very typical way to portray women in horror movies is to sexualise them. This is done within the movie through dressing the girls in tight clothing. Additionally, Carly and Francine are seen as weak and fragile unlike Jessie who is the ‘final girl’. Jessie is seen as more masculine that the other girls because she fights back and although like most horror movies the final girl is virginal Jessie is not but within the movie she does not have a boyfriend, whereas Francine and Carly are both with other people. Francine and Evan are both killed after partaking in drugs; this is something that is common within the horror genre. However, both Scott and Carly were killed at
different points in the movie and were not classed as ‘stupid, immoral teens’, which is something the horror genre usually follows. In conclusion, Wrong Turn supports many of the theories such as, Todorov’s narrative structure, Propp’s character types and Levi-Strauss’ binary oppositions theory. It also follows several conventions, like setting and final girl. However, it does not follow the ‘immoral teen’ aspect apart from the murders of Evan and Francine. Overall, this is a very typical horror movie and includes many jump scares and conventional horror themes.