Coyote
05-16-2003, 11:07 PM
By NATHAN TYLER
“This is hardcore horror.”
That’s how FX wizard/producer Stan Winston describes WRONG TURN (opening May 30 from Fox) during Fango’s visit to the Toronto set. The film is being touted as a throwback to the more visceral, reality-based brand of terror which dominated screens in the 1970s, and aficionados of this era in horror history should be pleased to hear that you won’t find wisecracking killers or CGI monsters anywhere near this film.
“There’s nothing camp about this movie. It’s very hardcore horror, and has the tone of DELIVERANCE and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE,” says Winston, who is producing the film with Brian J. Gilbert through his Stan Winston Productions, as well as handling the FX. “It’s the real deal, and we haven’t seen—I don’t think—a really good serious horror movie in quite a few years.”
Similar to those classics cited, the plot of WRONG TURN follows a group of unwitting young people who, after making a you-know-what in the West Virginia wilderness, are hunted and terrorized by three inbred, cannibalistic mountain men. The kids must then, of course, fight for their lives against the baleful trio. Directed by genre freshman Rob Schmidt from a screenplay by Alan B. (SPAWN) McElroy, and executive-produced to the tune of $15 million by Robert (RESIDENT EVIL) Kulzer and Erik (I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) Feig, WRONG TURN features one of the hottest young casts in recent memory, with Eliza (BUFFY) Dushku, Desmond (GHOST SHIP) Harrington, Jeremy (MAY) Sisto and Emmanuelle (RICKY 6) Chriqui tackling the lead roles. Well-acquainted with the genre, all of the actors were gung ho about adding the project to their résumés…except for Dushku, who apparently needed some coaxing after reading the script.
“She didn’t want to do another one of those horror movie romps,” explains Winston, “and I basically told her that this is not just another one of those—this particular movie isn’t like the movies or TV shows [she is used to]. This is not BUFFY, this is not SCREAM, this is much more of a throwback to the down-and-dirty horror of the ’70s, and not be one a typical film for her.”
The saving grace, though, was that the actress happened to be a fan of director Schmidt’s indie festival dramas CRIME + PUNISHMENT IN SUBURBIA and SPEED OF LIFE. “I was interested to meet him,” says Dushku, “and to see why he took [WRONG TURN] on and what he wanted to do with it, because the characters really didn’t have a lot on the page. I thought it would be cool to see what he did with it. And then I ended up meeting with Stan and he showed me all the special effects aspects of the movie, and it was just kind of intriguing and appealing.”
For the director, WRONG TURN posed an opportunity to do something completely different from the work he had done in the past. A lifelong genre fan, Schmidt explains, “I was looking for a horror film. I had a movie at Sundance before this and I did indie stuff, punk rock videos, things like that. I really wanted to do a genre movie, and I read a lot of scripts that were not so good. And then I found WRONG TURN. It was very simple and well-executed, and exactly the sort of thing that I wanted to make.”
As with Winston, what drew Schmidt most of all to the screenplay was that WRONG TURN couldn’t be further removed from much of today’s mainstream horror fare. “The script doesn’t wink at the audience and it doesn’t attempt to be funny; there’s no irony in it,” notes the director. “It has characters you’re supposed to invest in. That’s what these movies—when they’re good—do. Even the bigger ones like JAWS and ALIEN, they do the same thing.” Of the ’70s comparison, Schmidt is careful to note, “This is not a homage—it is like another one of those movies.”
“It’s physical horror. It is shocking. It is unsettling. It is very visceral. It is extremely organic,” adds Winston, the FX master’s flair for the theatrical in full tilt. “The goal is to make you believe when you sit down that the filmmakers are really out to hurt you, and out to scare you. And not let you think, ‘Oh, we love that one. That person is a good one, so she won’t die.’ Yeah, she will. And in a really horrible way.”
“This is hardcore horror.”
That’s how FX wizard/producer Stan Winston describes WRONG TURN (opening May 30 from Fox) during Fango’s visit to the Toronto set. The film is being touted as a throwback to the more visceral, reality-based brand of terror which dominated screens in the 1970s, and aficionados of this era in horror history should be pleased to hear that you won’t find wisecracking killers or CGI monsters anywhere near this film.
“There’s nothing camp about this movie. It’s very hardcore horror, and has the tone of DELIVERANCE and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE,” says Winston, who is producing the film with Brian J. Gilbert through his Stan Winston Productions, as well as handling the FX. “It’s the real deal, and we haven’t seen—I don’t think—a really good serious horror movie in quite a few years.”
Similar to those classics cited, the plot of WRONG TURN follows a group of unwitting young people who, after making a you-know-what in the West Virginia wilderness, are hunted and terrorized by three inbred, cannibalistic mountain men. The kids must then, of course, fight for their lives against the baleful trio. Directed by genre freshman Rob Schmidt from a screenplay by Alan B. (SPAWN) McElroy, and executive-produced to the tune of $15 million by Robert (RESIDENT EVIL) Kulzer and Erik (I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) Feig, WRONG TURN features one of the hottest young casts in recent memory, with Eliza (BUFFY) Dushku, Desmond (GHOST SHIP) Harrington, Jeremy (MAY) Sisto and Emmanuelle (RICKY 6) Chriqui tackling the lead roles. Well-acquainted with the genre, all of the actors were gung ho about adding the project to their résumés…except for Dushku, who apparently needed some coaxing after reading the script.
“She didn’t want to do another one of those horror movie romps,” explains Winston, “and I basically told her that this is not just another one of those—this particular movie isn’t like the movies or TV shows [she is used to]. This is not BUFFY, this is not SCREAM, this is much more of a throwback to the down-and-dirty horror of the ’70s, and not be one a typical film for her.”
The saving grace, though, was that the actress happened to be a fan of director Schmidt’s indie festival dramas CRIME + PUNISHMENT IN SUBURBIA and SPEED OF LIFE. “I was interested to meet him,” says Dushku, “and to see why he took [WRONG TURN] on and what he wanted to do with it, because the characters really didn’t have a lot on the page. I thought it would be cool to see what he did with it. And then I ended up meeting with Stan and he showed me all the special effects aspects of the movie, and it was just kind of intriguing and appealing.”
For the director, WRONG TURN posed an opportunity to do something completely different from the work he had done in the past. A lifelong genre fan, Schmidt explains, “I was looking for a horror film. I had a movie at Sundance before this and I did indie stuff, punk rock videos, things like that. I really wanted to do a genre movie, and I read a lot of scripts that were not so good. And then I found WRONG TURN. It was very simple and well-executed, and exactly the sort of thing that I wanted to make.”
As with Winston, what drew Schmidt most of all to the screenplay was that WRONG TURN couldn’t be further removed from much of today’s mainstream horror fare. “The script doesn’t wink at the audience and it doesn’t attempt to be funny; there’s no irony in it,” notes the director. “It has characters you’re supposed to invest in. That’s what these movies—when they’re good—do. Even the bigger ones like JAWS and ALIEN, they do the same thing.” Of the ’70s comparison, Schmidt is careful to note, “This is not a homage—it is like another one of those movies.”
“It’s physical horror. It is shocking. It is unsettling. It is very visceral. It is extremely organic,” adds Winston, the FX master’s flair for the theatrical in full tilt. “The goal is to make you believe when you sit down that the filmmakers are really out to hurt you, and out to scare you. And not let you think, ‘Oh, we love that one. That person is a good one, so she won’t die.’ Yeah, she will. And in a really horrible way.”