Left Turn at Albuquerque: The Wrong Turn Franchise

When I started this project, I actually thought I hadn't seen the first Wrong Turn. Even going into it, it seemed both familiar and completely new. By the end of the film, I realized that I had not only seen it once, I'd probably seen it a good half dozen times over the years. With performances from some of my favorites, Jeremy Sisto (Six Feet Under), Desmond Harrington (Dexter) and Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), it shouldn't have been a surprise that I'd seen the flick before. What really surprised me was that such a nondescript slasher could have spawned a franchise of four more films. So, feeling pretty safe in the assumption that I hadn't seen the other four flicks, I strapped in for a work week of Wrong Turn films to see where the franchise stayed between the lines and where it took some detours onto shaky ground. 

Hot Summer in Barefoot County (1974): Moonshine in the Sunshine

Living in the South, moonshine is something of a cultural heritage, and very close to me there’s a section of the county known as The Dark Corner where 'shine flowed like water to hear the historians tell it. A couple of years ago, they even made it legal to manufacture and sell moonshine around here, and let me tell you, if you haven’t had a cool glass of Apple Pie moonshine on a warm summer day then you’re missing out. Today’s film is just the type to watch while sipping away your cares. Hot Summer in Barefoot County sounds like a porn title aimed at Tarantino as a target audience (and with the amount of buxom barefoot ladies on display it still might be), but it’s really a dose of hicksploitation complete with hillbilly honeys, sputtering stills, and fast cars kickin’ up clouds of dust as they speed away from the fuzz.

Halloween Top 13: The Remake- #11- The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Ever been riding around in a rural area with someone and they lean over and say, “It’s like something from ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ out here.”? You then look around at the wooded area you’re driving though and the Fast Fare that you just passed and say, “Yeah, sure does”, but in your horror-hound heart you want to tell them, “No, this is nothing like The Hills Have Eyes. We’re not in the freakin’ desert. We’re not in an Airstream camper. And most importantly, while there does seem to be a contingent of Moonshining rednecks back at that Fast Fare, I haven’t seen a single person who I think might be an irradiated mess.” The problem is that you can’t say that because the person in the car with you either a) had never seen Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes b) has seen it but is mixing it up with Last House on the Left c) might have seen it, but doesn’t know, doesn’t care, and sure isn’t going want a horror nerd hissy fit on their hands.

Choice ‘c’ there is how I kind of felt every time someone came at me with Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes. I had seen it some time back, didn’t much care for it, and no amount of persuading me could get me to think that it wasn’t unnecessary. As you might have surmised, my opinion has finally changed….somewhat. After ranting about Piranha 3-D a couple of months back, I thought maybe I should give Aja another look. I rewatched High Tension, and it still ticked me off. Then I caught Mirrors again, and it never rises above the one gruesome scene that was already in the trailer. However on a second viewing of Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes I finally got into what he had done with the film. Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes is a tense, well paced movie, but his flat, blunt style keeps the action at arms length. Aja brings his viewer right into the bloody mess.

The core of the original story is kept in place. A family going cross country is given bad advice by a gas station attendant who sends them down an unpaved “shortcut”. Naturally, there is no shortcut at all, and the family soon is being stalked by a group of nuclear mutants. This is where the film takes a departure. Instead of the mutants being a vaguely Max Max-ian gang, these mutants are just that. When the U.S. government decided to test nukes in the desert, these folks’ ancestors went underground to live in the mines where they gave birth to generation after generation of inbred, irradiated cannibal killers. Needless to say, they were pretty put out by the whole “nuking our homes” thing, and so they seem to have decided to get by day to day eating whatever passersby they can.

Aja penned the screenplay with Gregory Levasseur, his co-writer on High Tension, but there was very little to do here but update how the people talked and add in a few minor sequences. There is a shockingly little difference in the storyline and dialog between the two films, but that didn’t bother me that much. Often times people complain about remakes going off in their own direction with little connection to the original film, and of course some films (Psycho remake, this means you) that don’t even seem to have an original thought. Aja might be able to be blamed for not taking the film a little further away from its roots, but that’s not the kind of remake he crafted. By keeping the story safe and familiar, he was able to spend a lot of time on visual imagery, and there are some striking examples in this film. Belgian cinematographer Maxime Aleandre, who also worked on High Tension which looked good if nothing else, and Aja make full use of the barren landscape and wide open settings to lets the camera swing, dart, and circle the characters. I thought this was a wonderful touch. It really gives the viewer a sense of what the family must feel like. They are being watched from all sides, danger surrounds them, and a chance of escape looks minimal. I would have liked to see a little more play with the lighting and shadow, but overall, Aja made the film his by making is a sleek, stylish production which are two adjectives that I’ve never heard used to describe Craven’s original film.

As the actors are playing virtual carbon copies of their 1970’s counterparts, there is little to write home about in that department, but I do want to mention a few folks. Ted Levine, who many will know as Buffalo Bob in Silence of the Lambs, appears here as another Bob, Big Bob, the patriarch of the family. No matter if I’m seeing Levine on Monk, in the Swayze classic Next of Kin, or just as the voice of Sinestro in Justice League cartoons, I always enjoy a performance from Levine, and this is no exception. Aaron Stanford, who played the son-in-law suffering Doug, really has the only dramatic arc in the film, pretty much everyone else gets whacked before they could become more than a static character, and he does it well. As the emotional center of the film, he impressed me very much, and the parts of the flick that don’t belong to cannibalistic nuclear mutants, are purely his to own. The last person I have to mention is one of my favorite genre film actors ever, Billy Drago. He shows up here are Papa Jupiter, the role originated by James Whitworth in the original film, and more than does the part justice. Plus with how odd Drago looks naturally, they probably saved some cash on special effects.

The Hills Have Eyes at first doesn’t come off at exactly what I thought it would be. Going into it, especially after the credits, I expected a film that was charged with political statements and social relevancy. Perhaps Aja thought those things were in there, but I didn’t see them. What I saw instead was a beautifully shot film that takes the ideas of the original film and expands on them with a style that doesn’t so much overshadow the substance but enhances it. I still don’t count myself as a fan of Mr. Aja’s films, (I am a fan of how his last name brings to mind Steely Dan songs every time I read it though.) but in this instance I have to say that he really did this remake justice. Let’s face it, while The Hills Have Eyes(1977) is a classic, it is only slightly average film to begin with (I have it a 2.5 in its review.). The fact that the remake exceeds the original is a testament to the work that Aja must have put into this film.

Bugg Rating

Hey Hey, we’re up to day 3 on the countdown, and that brings us to our guest today, the lovely and talented Ms. Christine Makepeace of Paracinema magazine, one of the baddest cinema magazines in the land. the new issue has just come out so get on over there and pick one up, but for now I won’t hold up Ms. Makepeace anymore. Let’s check out her list…

“HEY! After much thought, I realized I don't really like too many remakes! I could only come up with two!

Dawn of the Dead (2004)- I find this film more enjoyable than the original. Not to downplay the importance of Romero's creation... send all hate mail to christine@paracinema.net

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)- Both films are SUPER successful, but this remake was shockingly good (and faithful).

Whatddaya know! One of those picks is on the list, and one is the film I talked about today. I can’t thank you enough for taking part Christine, and I can’t wait until my copy of Paracinema arrives in the mailbox. That wraps it up today for The Halloween Top 13: The Remake. Tomorrow, things start to get a little more serious as the top ten picks start rolling.

The Lightning Bug presents Sunday Funnies: Private Snuffy Smith (1942)

Hello and welcome to the last new feature I'm rolling out. The weekend is a time to sit back and relax, but it always comes to a close. With Monday looming on the horizon and the work week ready to begin again, it's the perfect time to raise your spirits with a funny flick. So each Sunday that's what The Bug will be bringing to you.

For the inaugural edition, I felt it was only appropriate to start out with a movie based on the funny papers. (And sadly there is only a Bloom County animated special, no film, sigh.) Tonight I bring you the funnies favorite hillbilly. So strap on your boots, grab your rifle, and lets make a bee line for Hootin Hollar home to....

Private Snuffy Smith(1942) starring Bud Duncan, Edgar Kennedy, Sarah Paddon, and Jimmie Dodd. Directed by Edward F. Cline.

It's a lazy day in the Great Smoky Mountains, and Snuffy and his pals are guarding their still. However the Revenuers (basically the ATF of their day) are combing the hills looking for moonshiners and especially the wily Snuffy Smith. When the Revenue agents do stumble on

hillbillies, they are greeted with a barrage of shotguns filled with tacks. Snuffy manages to escape their clutches and embarrasses head revenue man Ed Cooper in the process. With no where to go he seeks shelter in the cabin of his friend Saul, but Saul's daughter Janie is having a rendezvous with her would be boyfriend Don. Seems Don and Janie's families are "a-feudin", and Don is off to the Army to seek his fortune by way of the artillery range finder he's invented. When Janie's pa finds the two there shotguns ring out and Don makes a hasty departure with Snuffy in tow.

It seems Snuffy is very impressed with the gold buttons and khaki britches that the Army has given Don. Couple that with tales of all the food you can eat and 30$ a month, and Snuffy wants to be an Army man himself. However they wont even let the diminutive hillbilly on the base. He does finally manage to see the base's general who runs him out right into the arms of ex-

revenue man, now Sergeant, Ed Cooper. Wisely Snuffy hightails it back to Hootin Hollar.

Snuffy's military career isn't over yet. After Snuffy's wife Lowizie makes up an accidental batch of invisibility potion, Cooper shows up to take Snuffy back to the general. Snuffy goes peacefully along with his now invisible dog Mr. Carter. When Snuffy gets there he discovers (as do we) that he's not in trouble at all. In fact, he's a hero to the general for saving him from a motorcycle accident. (When that happened, I don't know. It surely wasn't in the print I saw.) He rewards Snuffy with a position in the Army as a yardbird, a soldier assigned to the most menial of duties. Snuffy seems fine with that as long as he gets him some khaki britches.

After a while, the plot finally gets rolling as a group of dissidents/commies/fifth columnars plans to steal Don's range finder. They do manage to get ahold of the device, but its disappearance is discovered before they can get off the base. Luckily for them Snuffy has been thrown back out of the armed forces and is on his way back to Hootin Hollar. They stash the range finder on him, but they fail to get it back when they shanghai him on the road home. Soon, as luck would have it, Snuffy's old brigade is having war games right in Snuffy's neck of the woods or mountain as the case may be. It looks all but lost for the general, but he has one last hope. His secret weapon. A four foot tall moonshining hillbilly named Snuffy Smith.

Film Facts

--Director Edward Cline also helmed classic W.C. Fields comedies Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, The Bank Dick, and My Little Chickadee.

--Bud Duncan who plays Snuffy was a veteran of 165 silent films. His only two talkies were this one and its sequel Hillbilly Blitzkrieg (1942)

--Jimmy Dodd is perhaps best known as the MC of The Mickey Mouse Club and was the writer of it's iconic theme song. Dodd sings a couple of Snuffy-centric songs in this picture.

The Bug Speaks

The main thing to say about this film is that I had a good time watching it. It's not very well shot, acted, scripted, or anything. However it seemed to capture some of the flavor of the comic strip that we've all read when we're nearing the end of anything in the Funny Papers that we might read. Bud Duncan is actually pretty good as Snuffy, and his bulbous nose seemed so natural on his face that I actually debated whether it was real or not. Sarah Paddon also fits the bill as Lowizie, Snuffy's huge wife. These two were perfect casting. Edgar Kennedy, himself a veteran of some 340 films before this one, acquits himself well as a foil for Duncan's Smith.

There's really not much to say about the film. It is what it is. A cheaply made hillbilly comedy of the 1940's. I had a few grins, a few chuckles, and some outright laughs at some of the more physical comedy, but you'll get a chance to check it out for yourself. Down below instead of a trailer you'll find the "complete" one hour film. (Ahh, the magic of public domain.) So check it out for yourself and see what you think. (I put complete on quotes like that because it seems every print is missing some scenes from the original footage.) As for me, I enjoyed it, but probably would not watch it again. That being said; I would watch the sequel based on it's title alone.

Bug Rating