There’s no such thing as a horror franchise that can’t be run into the ground in short order should the opening chapter prove to be a certifiable financial success, but a lot of people were left surprised when sequel Wrong Turn 2: Dead End turned out to be not just better than anyone was expecting, but the high point of the entire franchise.
The 2003 opener was hardly a runaway freight train at the box office, but it did recoup its $12 million budget twice over and then some, which virtually guaranteed a slew of rapid-fire cash-ins, because that’s how the genre has operated for decade. We’re now seven films deep into the Wrong Turn saga, with the majority of them being terrible, which is what makes Dead End such an unusual treat.
That being said, you need a strong stomach to power your way through the blood and guts on offer in a story that finds another band of intrepid one-dimensional characters ending up lost in the woods, only to run headlong into a feral tribe of cannibalistic creatures absolutely desperate for a good meal. From there, entrails are strewn all across the screen, with gruesome dismemberment and buckets of claret the order of the day.
Horror is always a reliable performer on streaming, too, which goes a long way to explaining why a VOD effort that originally released way back in the middle of 2007 has suddenly surged in popularity to become one of the most in-demand titles available to iTunes subscribers, per FlixPatrol.
Maybe watch the first, probably avoid the next five, but Wrong Turn 2: Dead End has enough in the tank to appease the gorehounds.