Alan B. McElroy, the writer of Wrong Turn (2003) and Wrong Turn (2021), wants to make more sequels to the latter's reboot. McElroy is a screenwriter whose big break was Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Recently, when Entertainment Weekly looked back on the Wrong Turn franchise, McElroy told the outlet that the idea for the first film was inspired by something that happened to him in real life.
McElroy and his wife were driving to the airport to catch an early morning flight to Jamaica for a vacation when they were caught in a traffic jam. Worried about missing their flight, they consulted a map and took a small side road. "As we're doing that, in the dark, in a snowstorm, we're thinking, 'Is this a smart idea?' Anything could go wrong!" From this experience, McElroy began to develop a short film that would serve as the genesis for the series.
Titled Blur, it was about a bank robber whose car breaks down, leading to him coming into contact with these three mountain men. While he never got around to shooting the short, McElroy met with Original Film executives, who offered him two pieces of advice. Add four or five more future victims and "Give it a catchy title, like Wrong Turn." From there, McElroy wrote the script in three weeks.
The original Wrong Turn was about a trio of inbred and deformed cannibals, eventually named the Hillicker Brothers, killing anyone they encountered. One of the producers was Stan Winston, who was involved with the makeup for One Eye (Ted Clark), Saw Tooth (Garry Robbins), and Three Finger (Julian Richings). If you want to learn more about that, Dead Meat's coverage of the franchise has lots of great behind-the-scenes information, such as how they pulled off certain special effects.
Coming Back To The Franchise
The story of the Hillickers was eventually driven into the ground by a series of direct-to-video sequels, which McElroy had no involvement with. "They paid me off. My name is in there as 'characters created by,' but I had nothing to with 2 through 6." As previously indicated, that changed with the seventh film, which has also been titled Wrong Turn: The Foundation.
After Constantin executive Robert Kulzer contacted McElroy about a new film, the writer came up with a very different take on the franchise's mythology. The reboot concerns the Foundation, a commune of isolationist settlers. It was the first film since the original to be released theatrically, albeit a limited run due to the pandemic.
For the sake of not giving too much away, let’s just say that the reboot ends in a way that does leave the door open for sequels. "I had planned two more films, so there would be a trilogy based around this idea of the Foundation and these characters. I'd love to finish it and see it all come out the way I wanted." Only time will tell if further Wrong Turn films will come about, though.
You can watch the original Wrong Turn on Apple TV and Wrong Turn (2021) on Paramount+.