Film Review #1: Wrong Turn 2 - Dead end

One of my favourite pastime other than reading is watching films especially those "rare" titles that normally way off the mainstream and most often than not, those that are direct to DVD (i.e. no theatrical screening). Of the many genres out there, horror/mystery/thriller films always catch my attention as I enjoy the scare jumps and most often these films has the "whodunnit" element that keep us guessing until the end who is the real perpetrator. And sometimes I watch these flicks to test how good the filmakers are in delivering the horror as normally suggested by the taglines accompanying the films' posters.

Last week I was at a "pasar malam" near my house looking for something to grab for that night and happened to patron one DVD stall (read: prirate DVD) and came across this film...."Wrong Turn 2 - Dead End". I had watch the first installment of the film so I thought that why not watch the sequel. Well, frankly the film is hardly a sequel as it stands on its own with new characters except for the plot of a family of deformed cannibalistic mutated and no nonsense mountain people wreak havoc upon a group of survivor-like reality show participants in a Jungle. The first film was ok and was given a theatrical release and had its scary ang gory parts. But, the 2nd film......at least for me has taken the goriness off the chart!!! Starting from the 1st scene involving a female character until to the last tensful scene, there was this non-stop human chopping, decapitation, diembowelment, slaugthering and grinding (imagine going to the wet market looking at the butcher chopping, slicing and battering the meat and the cow's organs, except that in this case a human is the subject) activities went on. If you guys out there have seen Hostel/Hostel 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the likes, I personally think that this one offers a few notches above that.

So do I like the film, well, for a film done with a specific reason depicting what the mountain people capable off, yes it serves its purpose and was delivered spot on. While on entertainment value, based on my barometer, it lacks the intelligence, put in a few sexy women and a bunch of deformed mutants which at the end everyone dies except for one or two that happen to posses the highest moral value who escaped the carnage and went home safely......very straight to the point formula. There was no mystery or plot twist which would have helped making the film more interesting. Having said that, the films did have a good production value and setting. Can't really comment much on the acting ...as far as I am concern the actors/actresses appeared and acted way more convincing compared to all Yusof Haslam's films brought together, even the deformed mutants delivered better acting chops than Erra Fazira & Awie.

So, it was an OK film, but I think they overdid the gruesome department, which left me a bit disturbed at the end..... 2.5/5 stars