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- Blu-ray: Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings
- Rating: Unrated
- Starring: Jennifer Pudavick, Tenika Davis, Dean Armstrong, Terra Vnesa
- Written By: Declan O'Brien
- Directed By: Declan O'Brien
- Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Original Year of Release: 2011
- Extras: See Below
- Series:
Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings Blu-ray Review
The cannibal trio’s first meal By
Tim Janson
October 26, 2011
The cannibals are back in Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings
© 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
The original Wrong Turn (2003) wasn’t the most original film in the world but as an example of the “crazy family who lives in the woods” slasher genre, it was better than a lot of its ilk. Wrong Turn 2 was a passable sequel while Wrong Turn 3 (2011) was putrid. So the question becomes can Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings reverse the downward spiral trend of the franchise or might this be the final slash across the throat for Three-finger and his brothers? As it turns out, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Bloody Beginnings is certainly better than the horrible Wrong Turn 3 (although that’s not much of an achievement) but neither is it a good film. It is passable but eminently flawed slasher fare that probably picked the wrong path to venture down.
Bloody Beginnings is a prequel to the first Wrong Turn. The prologue is set in 1974 in the Glenville Sanatorium as the three inbred cannibal brothers from the original film…One Eye, Three Finger, and Saw Tooth…are just kids, locked away in the sanatorium for their own protection. The head of the Sanatorium, Dr. Ryan is showing new psychiatrist Dr. Ann McQuaid around the facility and notes the three brothers are the most dangerous inhabitants in the entire place, but also very intelligent despite their physical deformities. Soon, the three escape and also free the other patients as they go on a rampage killing the staff and destroying the inside of the hospital. Although kids, and presumably locked up or living in the backwoods all their lives, they are somehow smart enough to know how to use the shock treatment machine to kill one of the doctors. This serves to point out one of the many logic flaws of the film.
The biggest flaw may be that it is a prequel centering on the same three cannibals of the first film. So from the onset you know all three are going to survive the film since it takes place before the events in Wrong Turn. One of the attractions of films like these is finally seeing the antagonists get what’s coming to them at the end of the movie but we know from the beginning there will be no such payoff.
After the escape in the hospital the films jumps ahead 30 years. A group college kids go off on a snowmobiling trip to on of their friend’s cabins but get lost in a snowstorm. While searching for shelter, they come upon an abandoned hospital in the mountains…Yup…the very same Sanitorium. Here it is in all its glory…apparently untouched for three decades. Patient’s files still sit on the desk of Dr. Ryan. I’m not sure I can cover all the things that are wrong with this scenario…Why was the hospital abandoned with everything left inside? What happened to all the patients? When last seen the patients were tearing up the place but now the place looks immaculate. What, do they have a cleaning lady that comes in regularly?
So you can probably surmise what happens here…the cannibals have taken up residence in the old place and the kids decide to go explore…because it’s always more fun to split up and explore a dangerous, abandoned building rather than be smart and stay put. They soon become appetizers to the cannibals who if nothing else, are meticulous in the way the kill and consume their prey, creating their own version of a fondue with flesh stripped away from their victims. Bloody Beginnings won’t win any points for smarts or the acting ability of the literally disposable cast, but it does manage to come up with a number of gore-filled creative kills involving barbed wire, augers, metal spikes, a snowmobile and a particularly ghoulish scene where one victim is drawn and quartered. Gore hounds will not be disappointed by the volume of blood.
It does beg the question though that if the three cannibals had this nice, big cozy sanatorium to use as their lair, then how did they end up in a backwoods shack for the first film? I guess we’ll just have to wait until Wrong Turn 5 to find out.
Blu-Ray Extras
Audio Commentary with Director Declan O’Brien – Better than average commentary with some humorous insights into the filming although O’Brien is on the bland side.
Director's Die-arys (8:00) – Kind of slight for a diary but there’s some interesting anecdotes about shooting in the old hospital and some other key scenes.
Deleted Scenes (18:00) – Among the deleted scenes are a longer segment with Dr. Ryan giving Dr. McQuaid the tour of the hospital which was very slight in the final cut; There’s an extended part of the groups search for one of their missing members which was already too long so its good that it was cut. One part that should have been left in involved the character of Lauren who left the rest of the group on skis to get help and is relatively forgotten about.
Making Another Wrong Turn (13:00) – A short making of featurette that looks at the trouble the crew had in shooting in frigid temps and on a tight time schedule. Also includes looks at the gore effects and stunts.
Lifestyles of the Sick and Infamous (5:00) – Declan O’Brien discusses shooting inside an actual abandoned asylum and how it unnerved the cast and crew.
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I don't believe one of the biggest attractions in movies is necessarily seeing the antagonists getting theirs. I like seeing the villains win every now and then. It's more true to life and interesting.