The Wrong Turn franchise has had a rather successful run for being comprised primarily of direct-to-video releases, and while the premise isn’t wholly original, the fourth film tried to change up the pacing and deviate from the first three by tackling an origin story.

Directed and written by Declan O’Brien, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings answered audiences’ questions about the three primary antagonists that were introduced in the first movie, Wrong Turn, which was the franchise’s only theatrical release and came out in 2003. Released in 2011, Bloody Beginnings didn’t bring the most imaginative plot to the franchise, but after the first three films rehashed the same tropes surrounding a tribe of inbred cannibals who occupy the West Virginia back country, it was a welcome change of pace for some. After the first two movies, ratings for the Wrong Turn franchise went downhill, receiving lackluster reviews from critics, though didn’t lose steam with its audience. It was eventually followed by another movie, which was intended as a prequel to the first, and then a sixth movie, which separated from the overarching story entirely.

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Bloody Beginnings didn’t reinvent the wheel, but it didn’t need to; fans of the Wrong Turn franchise look for inventive kills, gore, and young people being dispatched by the cannibals. The main three, Saw Tooth, One Eye, and Three Finger have more or less held up six movies and are even rooted for by the fans. The creator of Wrong Turn, Alan B. McElroy, wrote the script for a seventh movie, which is called Wrong Turn: The Foundation that reportedly serves as a complete franchise reboot. According to reports, The Foundation could release sometime in 2020.

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In terms of plot, Bloody Beginnings doesn’t bring anything too inventive to the mix. The story begins with the three brothers in a mental asylum, Glensville Sanatorium, where they are under the care and supervision of a team of doctors who notice their peculiarities. As expressed in other films, specifically Wrong Turn 2, which addressed more of the family’s dynamics, the brothers have a lessened ability to feel pain, are cannibals, and are all marked with major deformities due to generations of inbreeding. Naturally, they escape and cut a bloody swath throughout the asylum and release the other patients. Then, the story skips twenty-three years later to follow a group of young college kids who end up getting trapped in a snowstorm.

One of the students, Lauren, is wary about them holing up in the old asylum because she remembers stories about the violent cannibals from her brother – not only did they murder many of the doctors and hospital staff, but they staged a violent uprising with the other patients, which showcases more intelligence than one might suspect from these types of villains. One of the benchmarks of the franchise is the cannibals’ ingenuity, and since the college students do not heed Lauren’s warnings, they end up taking up residence in the asylum and being hunted by the cannibals, who are still living there.

While mostly an exercise in excess – blood, nudity, and brutal kills – Bloody Beginnings leads into the fifth movie nicely, which goes on to explore even more of the cannibal family’s story, and is set just before the events of the original movie. Declan O’Brien knows how to entertain his audience through his direction of the third, fourth, and fifth Wrong Turn movies, which means half of the overall narrative is cohesive and linear, with the decision to focus on the cannibals, especially since sometimes they’re the only survivors, paying off.

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Jack Wilhelmi
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Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.

In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh.

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