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Released by: Fox
Released on: 10/20/2009
Director: Declan O'Brien
Cast: Tom Frederic, Janet Montgomery, Tamer Hassan
Year: 2009
The Movie:
Not content to go out on a high note after the success of the really fun Wrong Turn 2, Fox has brought back the mutant cannibal hillbillies from West Virginia for a third shot at taking down some folks who wandered into the wrong part of the mountains.
When the film begins, two couples are relaxing along the river. A girl takes her top off and just as her boyfriend cops a feel, an arrow pierces her titty and his hand - and we're off! The mutant cannibal named Three Finger makes short work of three of the four campers, leaving only one cute brunette left to run around the woods by herself… for now. Cut to a prison where a big skinhead guy and a Mexican thug are planning their escape. You see, a happy-go-lucky black prison guard and a white guard who is studying to be a lawyer so that he can buy a fancy condo on Manhattan's upper west side some day (has he ever been there? It's devoid of character. For shame!) are loading these guys up on a bus to transfer them to another facility and have made some connections on the outside that are going to help them bust out and make a run for it.
So yeah, everyone gets on the bus, and once they're all out in the woods Three Finger takes the bus out and starts chasing them around. A few people die, they all run into the pretty brunette from earlier on, and then they find an old armored car full of money. Can out group of cons, guards and a pretty brunette make it to safety before Three Finger and his kin chop'em up and have'em for lunch or are they all just pretty much screwed?
Well, the film starts off well enough. Right off the bat we get big fake boobs and plenty of gore and while a lot of that gore is of the stale CGI variety, it's plentiful and creatively executed, you've got to give the effects guys credit for that. From there, the film stumbles around a lot before getting back to the action. There's too much time spent on the rivalry between the skinhead and the Mexican and their various cohorts that doesn't really go anywhere or provide the tension between parties that you assume it's trying for. The characters are all clichés, none are particularly well fleshed out nor are they all that interesting. The best character in the film is Three Finger and he's really only popping around in the shadows, not given nearly enough screen time to help make a difference.
All of this would be fine if the film provided the required amount of slaughter, right? Right. And to its credit, it tries, but so much of it is cartoonish CGI that a lot of what should have had some serious impact and hit the audience between the legs feels like a cut scene from a video game. The film does have its moments and a few stand out gore set pieces that provide a moderate amount of entertainment value but by the time the movie is over you'll have probably forgotten about it. It's fine as a time killer, but that's about it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The AVC encoded 1080p 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen video on this Blu-ray disc isn't all that impressive, and it looks only marginally better than the first two films did. The picture is often times very soft and a bit murky in spots, and the black levels can look a bit blotchy. Fine detail seems to have been scrubbed out of some scenes and while colors look nice and vibrant, black levels aren't as strong as you'd expect them to be. It's all watchable enough and there are shots here where you'll definitely know that you're watching a high definition presentation over a standard definition one - so there is an improvement - but it's not drastic, and revelations are disappointingly sporadic.
The primary mix is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 mix though alternate tracks are provided in Spanish and French 5.1 Surround Sound with subtitles available in English SDH, French and Spanish. Again, this is a noticeable improvement over the standard definition release. The DTS-HD mix opens up the audio a bit and fills the room quite nicely. This isn't a reference quality surround mix but it's a nice decent if unremarkable effort that uses the rears to build atmosphere and help out in the jump scares department. The lower front end isn't very strong however, and surround activity isn't quite as aggressive as you might have hoped for. Everything sounds fine, but the mix could have and should have had more punch and power behind it than it does here.
The only extras of any substance on this release are three documentaries (which you can watch on their own or through a play all function): Action, Gore And Chaos!, Brothers In Blood and Three Finger's Fright Night. Here Declan O'Brien and a few others explain how they wanted to put an emphasis on action this time around. The participants also explain what it was like incorporating the prison aspects of the film, the effects work, the pyrotechnics work and more. There are some behind the scenes clips scattered in alongside the interview bits. If you dug the movie you'll probably get more out of this than the casual fan but it's interesting enough.
A minute's worth of deleted scenes, menus and chapter stops are included. All of the extras are presented in standard definition.
The Final Word:
Amusing enough, if completely disposable, this third film in the series can't come close to the entertainment value provided by the great second entry, but fans of the franchise will probably get a kick out of it.