A group of teenagers are enjoying a holiday canoeing along the river through the dense woods of West Virginia (Deliverance) when they are attacked by a deformed flesh-eating mutant hillbilly (known as Three Fingers) and his equally twisted son (The Hills Have Eyes). Meanwhile, a handful of dangerous prisoners are being transferred by coach (John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13) through the woodland road, when the vehicle is run off the road (Dead End). The prisoners manage to free themselves, and threaten the surviving guard to guide them out of the woods. When they run into the terrified teenage girl survivor from the canoe party, and then discover a crashed armoured truck loaded with money, they think events have taken a major up-turn. However, they have more to worry about than the authorities arriving to  round them up again. The hillbilly's son has been killed and, out for vengeance and fresh meat, he begins to pick them off one by one...

The premise of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians is particularly prevalent in horror films, in this case the fear and distrust emanating from both outside and inside the group. For the last decade or two the American film industry has suffered from a lack of sufficient fresh ideas to go around, resulting in a deluge of sequels and remakes - to the point that is has become common practice. Most remakes are needless, and most sequels are a pale comparison with an often inventive original. The first Wrong Turn owes much to the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Deliverance and others - but it nevertheless worked by heightening the tension to a par with the violence and gore.

The tag line for this second sequel is "Three Wrongs Make a Fright" which, although quite witty, doesn't suitably describe the mood of the piece. To a seasoned horror critic like myself it isn't at all frightening, but it does demand your attention by having something of significance to the plot take place on a regular basis. So a combination of tired themes make this a better outing than I was expecting.

Extras include three featurettes and two deleted scenes.

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Ty Power