Every Movie In The Wrong Turn Franchise Ranked
This might sound rude, but it's doubtful that the "Wrong Turn" films are anyone's ride-or-die franchise. In fact, when we did our own ranking of the 15 best horror movie franchises, the "Wrong Turn" property didn't even make the cut. And yet, despite the odds, seven "Wrong Turn" films (including a prequel and a reboot) have been released since 2003. That's a new "Wrong Turn" movie every three years on average! The series centers around a family of inbred cannibal mutants in Appalachia, leaning into every insulting cultural stereotype about mountain folk and turning it into a horror story. The "horrifying hillbilly" trope is nothing new, but the "Wrong Turn" series has become the grotesque poster child of the subgenre.
Against the better judgment of most, I have willingly watched all seven "Wrong Turn" films and ranked them here for your viewing pleasure. Let's throw out our maps, completely ignore our GPS, recklessly disregard any notions of sticking to the major highways, and take a wrong turn into this ludicrous series.
7. Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines
A group of college kids heads into a small mining town for the Mountain Man Halloween Festival, hoping to enjoy a night of costumes, music, and raucous fun. Alas, this is a "Wrong Turn" movie, so the party is interrupted by the cannibalistic family wreaking havoc throughout the franchise. "Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines" can't seem to figure out how it wants the audience to feel about the cannibals — waffling between instruments of terror and "HA HA, aren't these ridiculous inbreds so RIDICULOUS?!" It's a shame because while the "Wrong Turn" films have an inconsistent track record, they've always at least tried to craft some suspenseful moments with an entertaining, bloody pay-off. Not so much here. The characters have no sense of self-preservation so it becomes impossible to care about them, but the cannibal family isn't consistent enough to root for them to take their victims out. It's a mess from start to finish, but as is the case with any franchise, I'm sure there's someone out there who loves this one best. But hey, at least we have "Hellraiser" legend Doug Bradley being a grade-A creepy weirdo in this one to celebrate!
6. Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort
On a personal level, "Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort" is my least favorite in the series, but it at least attempted to do something unique by taking a more psychological approach than some of the other sequels. Unfortunately, this one is loaded with a genuinely unnecessary incestuous subplot that feels shoehorned in for shock value. Now, there is certainly merit in films that fill the void of the experience of staying up late and accidentally seeing a Skinemax flick late at night, but at least those films are usually somewhat amusing. "Last Resort" is the no-fun club of the "Wrong Turn" franchise, and depending on the scene, you can definitely see the faces of the actors underneath the masks of the cannibal family. If it weren't for the "Children of the Corn" franchise, this entry could solidify the "Wrong Turn" series' reputation as the most ludicrous horror property of them all.
5. Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
After a cold open featuring a group of friends being picked off by the cannibals, "Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead" pivots the story to an entirely new crop of victims. This time around the cannibals aren't targeting horny teenagers, but instead a group of prisoners and the law enforcement agents tasked with transporting them to a new prison. Are the characters likable? No. Are the cannibals scary? Also no. Are the gore effects believable? You're not gonna believe it ... but still, no. But hey, at least there's a wrong turn in this movie, right? Right? Right?! WRONG. And yet this is precisely the kind of horror sequel that nourishes me because there's so much to dislike that it rolls around and becomes somewhat enjoyable. Despite being set in Appalachia, every actor is trying like hell to pretend they don't normally speak with a British accent and I think every last drop of blood was added in post. It's not good, but it is a treat to watch with a group of friends who are here for a good time, not a thoughtful one.
4. Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings
Admittedly, "Bloody Beginnings" is on the same level as "Left for Dead" in my eyes, but because it takes some wild swings into uncharted territory for the franchise, it earns a higher spot on this list. The script is still wonky as hell, but it at least comes with one-liner gems like, "They're eating him alive like some f***ed up fondue!" or the Mad Libs-esque insult of "You guys are a bunch of slut monkeys." Finally diving into prequel territory, this film opens in 1974 at a sanitarium, where the cannibal family we'll come to know and love in the later films were kept as children. And then it completely abandons the true prequel setting and jumps forward to 2003, the year of the first film in the franchise, to become another run-of-the-mill aughts horror catastrophe moonlighting as a prequel. "Bloody Beginnings" continues the trend of showing the women in the buff for no discernible reason, but with its new, snowy setting, the film is at least trying to do something new. Tragically, the CGI blood is still abysmal, but despite all of the film's shortcomings, it packs a hell of a punch with a deeply nihilistic ending that is weirdly existential for a slasher movie in general, let alone the fourth installment in a notoriously lackluster series.
3. Wrong Turn (2021)
A lot of horror movie franchises attempt to reboot and reignite the IP's legitimacy a lot sooner than entry number seven, but this series was wise to wait until it could bring back the first film's original screenwriter, Alan B. McElroy ("Halloween 4," "Spawn," "Star Trek: Discovery") to try and wash away some of the stink of the sequels. "Wrong Turn" (2021) plays like a reboot in name only, pivoting away from the "scary cannibals in the woods" central scope of fear, and instead attempting to address themes of colonization, cults, and cyclical violence. It often feels like the "Wrong Turn" reboot is biting off more than it can chew in its flesh-eating maw, but there are major points here for ambiguous storytelling. It's weird because this "Wrong Turn" is very clearly trying to modernize and get to the root of how and why this world boasted a franchise of cannibal killers but executed in a grab bag of horror movie tropes and ... without any real backwoods cannibals! That's right, the "Wrong Turn" reboot is instead about a survivalist cult called The Foundation. This is one of the most polarizing films in the series, but I'll take a massive creative swing over a boring, safe-playing rehash any day of the week.
2. Wrong Turn (2003)
Man, we really screwed up by not turning Eliza Dushku into the next great scream queen, huh? 2003's "Wrong Turn" helped usher in the era of "white tank top horror" aka horror movies where the female lead runs around in a white tank top for 90% of the movie to best showcase her buff arms, cleavage, and whatever blood or mud comes her way. Directed by Rob Schmidt and written by Alan B. McElroy, "Wrong Turn" takes the simple presence of taking a wrong turn on a trip and ending up in backwoods nightmare territory where inbred cannibals want to eat your flesh. There's no rhyme or reason as to why these cannibals want to eat all of these hunky co-eds, but that's not why anyone is watching this movie, now is it? The original "Wrong Turn" evoked a simple albeit effective throwback to 1970s horror, but with plenty of screeching nu-metal to turn this into a time capsule of naughty aughts horror. This is the blueprint for plenty of "inexplicable dangerous cannibals in the woods" films that would follow and helped launch a weirdly enduring franchise that I doubt anyone saw coming.
1. Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
It's always somehow blasphemous to declare a sequel as the best in the franchise, but "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" takes the crown and it's time people put some respect on director Joe Lynch's brutal backwoods slasher. Rather than rehash the original formula that came before, "Dead End" is a meta-takedown of reality television and wannabe celebrity culture. The film's opening is one of the most hilariously graphic in the entire franchise and with a survivalist reality show setting (with a "Rambo"-esque host played by Henry Rollins, no less), the story feels the most unique of all of the sequels. While the film played a few horror festivals before debuting as a direct-to-DVD release, it's a shame this one didn't get the theatrical treatment because it would have played phenomenally to a crowd. There's more blood, the film features some of genre film and television favorite composer Bear McCreary's earliest work, and the film isn't afraid to have a ball with it all. It's incredibly difficult to continue on a route of genuine scares when the first film essentially lays out the formula of how a "Wrong Turn" film functions, so it's great to watch Lynch completely flip the series on its head and turn the film into what a quality horror sequel should be — fun as hell.