Critics reviews

Although its many complications quickly devolve into absurdity, "Wrong Turn" does deserve some credit for the boldness with which it deviates from its franchise inspiration. This is no paint-by-numbers remake. And although it’s just got way too much going on, the gore is gnarly, the paranoia is palpable, and the characters, while sometimes annoying, have motivations and arcs that make sense.

This horror is pretty crass and generic, yet there is occasionally a wacky gonzo energy... It’s a bit silly and queasy, but the narrative motor keeps humming.

Although the antithesis of "Wrong Turn" films that have come before, this 2021 version offers an entertaining slice of folksy horror. Yes, it’s sad that the cannibals have been replaced by a more highbrow discourse on prejudice and societal norms, but this reset does at least salvage the series from the farcical mess it had become.

These movies live or die by their creative killings, but most of the ones here are of the routine murderous booby-trap variety... I didn’t hate it, but didn’t get much out of it and found it boring. Still, fans of kidnapping, impaling, hot-poker-in-the-eye cinema may take to it as their cinematic happy place.

This is a remake that has clearly moved on from the original, and now wants to be graded on its brains instead of its brawn... Director Mike P. Nelson has a confidence that keeps this movie bolder than you expect. And considering its fitfully nasty traps, it can be mighty thrilling when you don’t really know where a reboot like this is going.

Where this movie gets more lost than its hikers is on its journey towards depth... It is hard to know exactly what the movie is trying to say when white liberals team up with confederates to defeat colonizers who fancy themselves indigenous. What’s left in this otherwise well-crafted horror flick is a messy “all sides” story that doesn’t feel intentionally so.