Movies
[Kill of the Week] Axed Down the Middle in ‘Wrong Turn 2’
Every week, we spotlight a kill that we just can’t get enough of. This is Kill of the Week.
Here on Bloody Disgusting we’re big fans of Joe Lynch, whose new (and quite possibly best) film Mayhem (read our review) is now playing in limited theaters alongside a VOD release. Samara Weaving and “The Walking Dead” star Steven Yeun go on a bloody rampage through an office building in Lynch’s latest, and oh boy is it a fun one.
But 10 years before Lynch unleashed Mayhem, he took a Wrong Turn.
Lynch, an untested director at the time, was the man tasked with directing Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, released in 2007 as a sequel to the 2003 film. And with his debut feature, Lynch wasted absolutely no time winning over our gore-loving hearts and showing just what kind of filmmaker he was.
Within the first six minutes of Wrong Turn 2, “American Idol” contestant Kimberly Caldwell plays a version of herself in a sequence that instantly made me a fan of both Lynch and the film. Driving through West Virginia, Caldwell’s character hits a man while distracted by her phone, pulling over to the side of the road to check on him. This proves to be a life-ending mistake, as the man is a cannibal… and his family is not far behind.
After the man gruesomely bites her lip off, his three-fingered brother slams an axe directly into the top of Kimberly’s head, splitting her clean down the middle. Her guts spill out on the road, and the brothers each grab a side and drag her carcass away.
Sequels are rarely better than the first film. But Wrong Turn 2 defied those odds.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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