If you’re going to remake a movie, it should either be a direct continuation or offer a fresh perspective on the core ideas—this film attempts the latter, but that's about its only redeeming quality. The writing and acting are shockingly bad, creating an experience that manages to offend various groups in roughly equal measure. It doesn’t appeal to conservatives, nor does it succeed as entertainment for those on the left. Ultimately, it's a disastrous failure that tries to use a familiar horror premise to make a social statement. I appreciate political themes in film, even within the horror genre, and consider myself politically progressive, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to incorporate these values—this is an example of how not to do it. The foundation for a decent horror movie was present. The structure still echoes the backwoods horror style that inspired the original "Wrong Turn." What distinguishes this film is its portrayal of the hillbillies, who aren't portrayed as slobbering, deformed monsters. Instead, they’re depicted as a cult-like group with a nomadic lifestyle, supposedly descended from people who fled into the mountains during the Civil War to establish an egalitarian society rooted in primitivism. The horror elements are passable, particularly the variety of deadly traps scattered throughout the forest that unsuspecting travelers encounter. These moments provide some memorable and occasionally shocking sequences, but beyond this, there’s little to praise regarding the direction. The film falters when it comes to its socio-political messaging. Backwoods horror has often explored the divide between rural communities and urban outsiders, but this movie is overly blunt in hammering home that point, with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The main characters are stock figures representing various minority groups—and I’m not saying this from a reactionary standpoint; their characterizations are simply insulting, and the dialogue feels like it was written by an immature child. They are unnecessarily hostile towards rural people even before reaching the mountain. Once they arrive, the film's supposed "clever twist" quickly becomes obvious. As the group wanders into traps, it’s revealed that the mountain dwellers aren't trying to kill them; these young people are simply triggering hunting traps by straying off course. Their subsequent encounter with the fiercely dressed cultists speaking an unfamiliar language leads them to assume they are in danger and attack. This is the film's unsubtle commentary on society’s tendency to misinterpret other cultures and make judgments based on appearances. The problem isn’t just one-sided, however; the cult members aren’t any better than these privileged, ignorant city kids. They enact their own distorted form of “an eye for an eye” justice and turn out to be nothing more than a hyper-traditionalist group with disturbing tendencies. Regardless, there's no one to cheer for. It becomes clear that the cult are barbaric heathens, while the young people make consistently poor choices and deliberately provoke violence instead of acting like responsible adults. The film could have genuinely ended well for everyone if certain characters had simply remained silent, but the script demands that everyone behave as vapidly as possible. Ultimately, despite its aspirations to convey a progressive message, it ends up portraying both the left and right—and everything in between—as foolish. Combined with dialogue so bad it provokes laughter, this is a strange production I can’t believe received wide distribution. Let's hope this debacle doesn't inspire a series of increasingly terrible sequels like the original film did, because this one has already reached rock bottom.

Source on TMDB