Another major horror franchise is getting the full reboot treatment with Wrong Turn 7, formally titled Wrong Turn: The Foundation, returning in 2020 from original creator Alan B. McElroy.
The Wrong Turn movies debuted in 2003 with their first - and only - theatrical release, which starred Eliza Dushku, Desmond Harrington, Jeremy Sisto, and Emmanuelle Chriqui. The rest of the sequels went direct-to-video, and saw a great amount of success despite being relegated outside of mainstream showings. Since then, the franchise has developed a cult following, with eager fans tuning in to see a backwoods tribe of inbred cannibals dispatch unsuspecting travelers in creative and vicious ways. Many of the Wrong Turn movies work to avoid the prominent stereotypes set by slasher films, and pay homage to gritty '70s exploitation classics and cannibal films such as The Hills Have Eyes and Tobe Hooper's seminal classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Alan B. McElroy, the franchise's creator, has had a storied career in horror. Not only did he write the script for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, but also lent his talents to 1997's superhero/horror crossover, Spawn. McElroy also submitted a script for the film adaptation of the popular Resident Evil video game franchise, but didn't make the cut. Though the film seems likely to release sometime in 2020, very few details about McElroy's reboot have been released. Even so, there are more than a few ways the next movie could go, based on the available information, which show how it can be done successfully.
Wrong Turn: The Foundation is being directed by Mike P. Nelson from a script by McElroy. From what has been released, it seems the film will focus on a mysterious community known as "the Foundation" who have been around in the woods near the Appalachian Trail for hundreds of years. Part of what is so interesting about the Wrong Turn movies is that the killers aren't traditional slasher-type villains. They are hunters who kill and eat their victims to survive and sustain their way of life. Sometimes this is played to an extremely subversive level, with notes of inbreeding and duplicitous capture of female victims being showcased in a few films.
Wrong Turn 7 won't be the first time the franchise has tried to give itself a makeover. Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings already served as an origin story and prequel to the first three films, and the sixth installment, Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort, was meant to be a standalone film that explored the familial aspects of the cannibal tribe. However, it seems that McElroy is looking to completely alter his creation; this is notable as he hasn't lent his writing talents to the franchise since the first installment. In fact, every movie has had a different writer. Declan O'Brien directed two films in the series - the third and fourth installments - and wrote the script for Bloody Beginnings as well. However, many fans consider McElroy's first film to be the strongest entry in the series.
McElroy's vision could be something similar to what David Gordon Green did with Halloween, which a lot of horror franchises should consider following, as it was a major success. For a while, Eliza Dushku was in talks to return to the second movie, but not as her character Jessie Burlingame, but a cameo role as herself. While it seems unlikely that the next film will include either of the original survivors, and might instead go back further into the tribe's history to showcase how the cannibals continue to survive and how, exactly, they got there in the first place. A name like The Foundation makes it sound like there's something darker at work, perhaps somebody behind-the-scenes who is pulling the strings, almost like Cabin in the Woods did. Regardless, the announcement of Wrong Turn 7 is welcome for franchise fans, and seems to be on the right track.
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