How Many Wrong Turn Movies Are There?

For fans of the horror genre, the early 2000s were truly a dark time. That's not because there weren't any good genre flicks out there. Rather, those pics were largely suffused with the trappings of the so-called "torture-porn" craze, with the likes of "Saw," "Hostel," and "House of 1000 Corpses" pushing the genre well past the boundaries of cinematic decency. So, too, did Rob Schmidt's brutalist, "lost-in-the-woods" fright fest "Wrong Turn," which pits a group of unsuspecting youngsters against a wily band of inbred, backwoods psychos with a penchant for trapping, torturing, and then eating their human captives.

Released in the Spring of 2003, "Wrong Turn" proved every bit as grisly as you might expect from that teaser, delighting horror lovers who relish in such fare, even as many fans and critics agreed the film did little to set itself apart from the works that inspired it — like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes." Nonetheless, the modestly-budgeted "Wrong Turn" scared up just enough business to get a sequel greenlit, and "Wrong Turn 2: Dead End" debuted via direct-to-video release in 2007. 

It may come as a surprise, but the "Wrong Turn" series didn't stop with that '07 sequel. It's actually become a legit franchise over the years, with far more films than you likely realize.

You read that right. The "Wrong Turn" franchise is now a full seven movies strong. We're as surprised by that as anyone, but 2021's vicious, soft reboot, also entitled "Wrong Turn," was indeed the seventh installment in the gore-mongering series. If the critics are to be believed, the latest addition to the franchise is among the best yet, though Rotten Tomatoes confirms the franchise arguably reached its creative zenith with the Certified Fresh '07 sequel. 

The four films released between the first, second, and seventh chapters of the "Wrong Turn" saga all saw direct-to-video releases, and the critics didn't really bother with any of them. As for the viewers who did, they clearly wish they hadn't, with most claiming those four "Wrong Turn" flicks brought nothing new to the franchise mix, recycling pretty much every cannibalistic storyline from the first two films.

As for 2021's surprisingly well-received "Wrong Turn" reboot, the new film likely benefitted from the return of the original film's writer Alan B. McElroy, who manages to make things interesting in cannibal-land despite the fact that his politically charged screenplay basically utilizes the exact same template as the franchise's other offerings. Even still, with the new film's apparent success, the question becomes whether or not it will inspire more "Wrong Turn" sequels. That seems more likely than not these days, even if most folks can agree seven "Wrong Turn" movies really is more than enough.