‘Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings’; Frustration in Waiting (Review)

Written by: Matt Molgaard

Directed by: Declan O’Brien

Cast: Jennifer Pudavick, Tenika Davis, Kaitlyn Leeb

As a fan of the Wrong Turn franchise, I had really high hopes for the fourth installment, Bloody Beginnings. The film marks a prequel to the chaotic telling of the Wrong Turn disasters, and after seeing a few radical trailers for the pic, there was faith that perhaps the crew behind this one could get the franchise back on track. The idea of a cannibalistic trio painting snow covered mountains a deep ruby red certainly seemed appealing. Sadly, those gnarly trailers were probably the best aspect of the entire film, as director Declan O’Brien falters in a few too many ways to consider this little more than a rushed product designed to keep the Wrong Turn brand alive in the minds of fans. Apparently, even if the film is a dud.

I don’t even care to dive too deep into the storyline itself, as it’s loaded with enough predictable sequences and plot holes that you could fall into one and disappear forever… if you didn’t already predict every death trap in waiting. Having said that, I will sketch the premise out briefly: Viewers learn that these Virginia natives (who we already know from the previous three Wrong Turn features) find themselves locked up in the Glenville Sanatorium back in the mid-1970s, just a few inbred man-eating teenagers, locked up and tucked away from society. They obviously escape (eventually), do some slaughtering, and then it’s fast forward to contemporary times, which we see in previous Wrong Turn releases. For this journey we welcome our latest group of victims, who are, by a landslide the most annoying cast assembled to date. This group of dipshits (there’re roughly 10 clowns in this pack) get lost in the mountains while looking for a cabin owned by one of the group. Of course, they stumble upon the old abandoned hospital, and opt to take refuge there, where One Eye, Three Finger and Saw Tooth are about to cut their teeth on fresh meat.

Unfortunately for viewers, there isn’t a single protagonist to pull for. This troupe reaches a new low, all being horribly annoying, cardboard cutouts who completely fail to grasp any quality that may make them actually stand out amongst the ensemble, or previous ensembles for that matter. Of course some terrible scriptwriting doesn’t help the character cause, but for the love of all things horror, one likeable figure could have made this one a whole lot more enjoyable: Just one! Forget about it! As a viewer, all I really wanted from this film was to see these morons disposed of, and final credits roll. There’s just nothing else to hope for, and you’ll realize that once you recognize that the gore isn’t even particularly impressive. Come on now, this is a Wrong Turn movie!!

The Wrong Turn franchise has seen its ups and downs. The concept of a prequel, and getting a chance to learn a little villain history sounds like loads of fun. It isn’t. And you’re not really going to learn a damn thing about the series antagonists, other than the fact that they were just as hungry in ’74 as they are today. Sadly, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings feels like a rushed, neglected piece with the sole intent of bringing in a few bucks from suckers like me who believed there may be some depth to tap into by traveling the prequel route. Boy were we wrong about that. As the great Harvey Keitel would say, “Don’t be a fool!” Avoid it. It’s just frustration in waiting.

Rating: 1/5