Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (unrated)
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This is, of course, the first sequel to Wrong Turn. I guess it had a brief theatrical release before being released on DVD, but some sites may still call it "direct-to-video". (And I'm fairly sure all the future movies in the series really were direct-to-video.) I'm also under the impression that a lot of people, horror fans and critics alike, consider this the best movie in the series. I should say, it came out in 2007, but I didn't see it until 2019. That was a couple of years after I watched the first movie, which I now don't remember well enough to make definite comparisons to. But I suppose I'm not too apprehensive about saying I probably liked this one somewhat better than the original.

It's set in the same area of West Virginia as the first movie. And I'm kind of surprised that there apparently hasn't been a massive search for any surviving killers. (A deputy sheriff began an investigation in a mid-credits scene of the first movie, and was killed. You'd think a thing like that wouldn't be the end of it, but only spark a much larger manhunt. And that the media would get wind of it, and the area might become famous for the murders that happened there. But as far as I can tell, none of that has happened.) Anyway, the movie begins with Kimberly Caldwell driving to where a new reality series she's been cast in is going to take place. (I guess she's playing a version of herself; while watching the movie, I had no idea who she was, but I later learned online that her character was, you know, a real person.) She's on the phone with her agent, Tommy (voice of Patton Oswalt, though I didn't learn that until later). Kimberly is upset about Tommy getting her on another reality show, instead of like a movie or something. (Which now that I think of it, is kind of ironic.) And she's upset about being in the backwoods of West Virginia, especially since she's having trouble finding the place she's supposed to go. Meanwhile, Tommy's just upset about being woken up in the middle of the night (since he's in California, or whatever). When Kimberly loses cell reception, she gets distracted, and runs over some guy. She goes to see if he's alive, and if she can do anything to help. But he soon starts eating her face (totally gruesome), and when she tries to get away, the guy's brother shows up. They kill her and drag her away. (Wikipedia says the guy she hit was Three Finger, who had survived the original movie. But I never found it possible to really recognize any of the killers in either of these movies, with all the makeup effects used to make them look like mutants.)

Anyway, the reality show she was supposed to be a contestant on was "The Apocalypse: Ultimate Survivalist." The premise is that there has been an apocalypse of some kind, and there are few survivors. The creator of the show is a guy who goes by the name "M." The host of the show is a retired Marine colonel named Dale Murphy (Henry Rollins). The contestants include a model named Elena Garcia, a professional skateboarder named Jonesy, a Marine named Amber Williams, a former football player named Jake Washington (whose career was ended by a shoulder injury), and a vegan named Nina Pappas. (I'd like to say more about some of these characters, but the internet isn't very helpful and my memory isn't great, and I really don't care enough to put the DVD back in and watch the contestants' bios at the start of the reality show. The only thing I really can say is that Jonesy is a douchebag who hits on all the female contestants, and thinks he's funnier than he is.) The show is supposed to have six contestants, and since Kimberly hasn't shown up, M asks the show's producer, Mara Stone (who is also his girlfriend), to take her place.

The contestants are divided into three teams: Mara is paired with Nina, Amber with Jonesy, and Jake with Elena. Each team goes their separate way into the woods, to complete their challenges, or whatever. And they all have mini-video camera earpieces, or whatever. And um... each pair has their share of conflicts with each other. (That is, until the mutants start killing people and they realize they really do have to work together to have any chance of survival.) Meanwhile, Dale goes into the woods to finish setting up some devices that are sort of electronic booby traps that present contestants with specific challenges if they accidentally trigger them. But before he can get far with that task, he's captured by mutants. (Oh, I did want to say that one thing I liked about the movie was that at one point, Jonesy made a crack about hillbillies, and Dale shouted at him all badass drill sergeant style, about how he himself had grown up not far from here, and the local residents would not appreciate that kind of stereotype. I definitely agree with that, although I also find it a darkly amusing irony that Jonesy turned out to be more right than anyone could have imagined.) Of course, Dale really is a badass, and eventually escapes from his captors, kills some, and goes on a hunt for the others, I guess. He finds an old man in a cabin, who tells him about how these mutations came to happen. (Wikipedia says his name is Maynard Odets, which I assume was revealed in one of the later movies. It also says he was in the first movie, which... I guess I vaguely remember the character, but not anything specific about him. And I never would have recognized him as the same character, which I find strange, because this time around, I immediately recognized the actor, Wayne Robson, whom I know from The Red Green Show. So I expect I must have recognized him when I watched the first movie, too, and I find it strange that I wouldn't remember that.) Anyway... I definitely liked hearing an explanation for the mutants' origins. It started with birth defects some decades ago, because of toxic chemicals released into the river by a paper mill, which has long since been abandoned. And he says that when the affected babies grew up, they started having babies of their own, with each new generation more mutated than the last. (I don't remember any explanation being provided in the first movie. It's possible we were just supposed to think it was the result of inbreeding, which wouldn't really make much sense. I don't think any genetic problems would become that pronounced in so few generations, as far as appearance goes. And it certainly wouldn't explain why they're so damned hard to kill.)

Whew. I've written a lot already. And I'm tired of writing about this movie. So I'll just say there are lots of deaths of both people involved with the reality show, and the mutant killers. And I'll say that if I had any doubts as to whether they were cannibals in the first movie, there is zero room for doubt about that now. And um... there's lots of gore. And I guess I found it all scary enough, since I actually managed to care about some of the characters. (My favorites were Mara, Jake, and Amber. Though Nina became more likable and relatable at various points than she was in the beginning.) Of course I won't say who dies and who doesn't. But as I said earlier about being surprised this area hadn't become infamous for the killings in the first movie, I would be even more surprised if it remains unknown in the next movie. I guess I'll find out whenever I get around to watching it. And then I'll have to decide whether I have any interest in seeing the rest of the series.

But seriously, it really is kind of a neat parallel having a fake "survivalist" show turn into a real fight to survive.