WT3 - Damned By Dawn - The Canyon Movie Reviews
WT3 - Damned By Dawn - The Canyon Movie Reviews
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Wrong Turn 3
Before I take another wrong turn, I'm getting a GPS!
In a mash-up between TV's canceled "Prison Break" and any in the series of The Hills Have Eye films, Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead is easily the worst of the franchise's trio. The 2003 debut was alright if you like the mutant-cannibals-living-in-the-woods thing, and the second one was balls-to-the-wall, flat-out funny and over the top.
Now taking another stab using hungry hillbillies pitted against escaped convicts and clueless teens, comes director Declan O'Brien… and he makes a mess of it (understandably; a script this ambitious and disjointed gives one way too much to work with). Thankfully, the majority of the action takes place at night and it's mercifully dark… the CGI is pretty pitiful.
The story ties the three threads together with miles of intestines, a spackling of brain matter, and lots and lots of gooey gore. There are some truly squirm-inducing moments, but they don't mean much standing alone without character development or suspense to bolster them. But if you're into it, look for the arrow through the heart of a bare-chested babe, the man sliced into sections, and the mutant mushed.
Damned By Dawn
I hope Tony Orlando is not involved
Damned By Dawn uses some pretty hokey effects to summon its banshees to life, but if you do what I did and you think "videogame" it's much more palatable. The CG is quite sketchy, but the makeup and prosthetic effects are cheesy 70s TV movie good. And by good, I mean bad. Or something like that.
I actually enjoyed Damned Before Dawn. It's the classic story of a grieving family stuck on dying grandma's isolated farm, there to say goodbye… it doesn't take long till they realize somebody else — an evil spirit — can't wait to say hello. The Australian cast aren't well-known, but they do a good job handling the horror and fantasy elements with at least somewhat believable reactions. (I mean, really… how does one react to mobs of scythe-clutching, rotted-robe wearing skeletal banshees flying at one's face?)
With everything from crashing thunderstorms in graveyards and grinning zombies in the attic, Damned by Dawn is a gory, if goofy, good time.
The Canyon
Open Water, sans sharks
Eion Bailey and Yvonne Strahovski play newlyweds Nick and Lori, out on a honeymoon expedition with their hired guide, the mysterious yet charming Henry (Will Patton). They've chosen the Grand Canyon as their burial plot… er, final destination… um, vacation spot, and after quite a long time admiring the views and talking about stuff, things go horribly awry.
If you saw Open Water, then you know pretty much what is going to happen but the actors are a little more on-point (Strahovski shows she can do more than just "Chuck" and Bailey is believable as the gung-ho groom) and the setting is a little more relatable (most of us might go to the deserts and canyons, but not many choose to go swimming in shark-infested oceans).
It's a bit slow-moving for the theater, but The Canyon is an alright time-waster on DVD.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson