The Wrong Turn franchise, after its original installment, became known for intense violence, nudity, and other profane sequences, but the 2003 original lacked in all of this except for violence, which was particularly brutal.
Redneck cannibal movies, such as The Hills Have Eyes, are known for having brutal, violent kills and scenes of a sexual - and sometimes even nonconsensual sexual - nature. This is typical of slasher movies as well, which tend to be titillating in sexuality and nudity along with the standard fare of intense sequences of terror and violence. While this has lessened some in modern years, with films preferring to focus more on violence than nudity, as this sometimes makes ratings increase beyond what the filmmakers aspire (an R typically being most desirable), a film like Wrong Turn being entirely devoid of nudity and sexual content is a bit strange.
Though its sequels upped their quotas on both sexuality and violence, all of these released direct-to-video, which could have factored into their decision to go all-out instead of trying to focus on craft and restraint while still remaining true to the genre, as the first one did.
Wrong Turn Didn’t Lack In Violence, But Avoided Nudity
Wrong Turn making the choice to avoid nudity could have been for a few reasons. First, the MPAA was notorious for giving films a heavy-handed rating for excess, as was seen with films like Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, which had to cut approximately 40 minutes of footage that never got released in future iterations of the film. In the past, horror has been subjected to incredible scrutiny, even more so in the UK than in the US with the infamous “video nasty” craze that kept films from directors like Sam Raimi and Wes Craven in limbo for years.
Since Wrong Turn was already an incredibly violent film, it’s possible 20th Century Fox, its distributor, didn’t want to push their boundaries. Fox had invested in other major horror franchises in the past, including the Alien franchise, which went through the gamut with deleted scenes, content issues, and the inclusion of subtle sexuality didn’t always fly with test audiences or the MPAA. Another reason for avoiding the nudity may have been Wrong Turn’s up-and-coming cast members, which included Eliza Dushku of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame and Emmanuelle Chriqui, who later had roles on The O.C. and Entourage.
Though never stated plainly as being a reason for the lack of nudity or sexuality, it’s possible neither actress wanted to chance baring it all for the camera in a franchise that was untested in popularity and could have sunk their promising careers. This might have ultimately been a good decision on their part because, while the film wasn’t wholly unsuccessful, it only made $28.7 million at the box office on a $12.6 million budget. An upcoming seventh installment, which is titled The Foundation, has started to create some buzz regarding a rejuvenation of the Wrong Turn franchise on the whole, so perhaps it will make another attempt at a theatrical release in the future.
Next: Wrong Turn 5 Featured A Special Role (For A Fan)
