Coming to DVD this fall
Fox Home Entertainment returns to the woods of West Virginia where inbred cannibals continue their reign of terror in Wrong Turn 3. Director Declan O’Brien picks up where Joe Lynch’s unfettered entry left off and, from the sounds of it, he’s turning up the heat with the most explosive chapter in the franchise yet. The film doesn’t hit DVD and Blu-Ray until this fall, however, ShockTillYouDrop.com was offered an early opportunity to talk with O’Brien.
ShockTillYouDrop.com: How did you get roped into this blood-soaked franchise?
Declan O’Brien: Fox had this script and they gave me a call, they had seen my previous work. They asked if I was interested and, of course, I had seen the other two movies and was a fan. I was absolutely thrilled to do it.
Shock: What is this entry about?
O’Brien: This Wrong Turn, when it was being developed, the first movie was beautiful people in the woods getting hunted down and getting killed and eaten by cannibal hillbillies. The second movie was beautiful people in a reality show getting hunted down and eaten by cannibal hillbillies. You can’t do that a third time. Where’s the sport in that? We wanted to take the franchise in a direction where the cannibal hillbillies are up against people who fight back. It becomes a Battle Royale and, basically, you’ve got a prison bus filled with the worst murderers in the country being transferred to a high security prison in West Virginia. Of course, they escape and fall into the hands of Three Finger and the cannibal hillbillies and it becomes a battle. It starts at three o’clock in the afternoon and finishes at dawn. So it’s all real time and once it gets going, it grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.
Shock: Three Finger has demonstrated his survival ability and has endured three films now, but is he joined by any new cannibals this time around?
O’Brien: I love that guy. I’ll tell you this, there’s more than one. What I wanted to do was keep it in line with some of the logic of the second film. There is logic to it and there is a surprise that I don’t want to reveal too much. If you look at it and see who shows up, it all makes sense.
Shock: Who did you have on board for FX this time?
O’Brien: I shot the film in Sofia, Bulgaria and I used an FX team out there, her name is Yana Stoyanova and she did a very good job. I also used practical gore and bloody FX from there as well. There are also a lot of stunts, this is a big film. I was lucky to get the stunt coordinator from Munich, we did some car stunts and explosions, all sorts of fun stuff.
Shock: These films certainly try to top one another in the gore department. Did you feel you needed to push the envelope further?
O’Brien: The bar was set pretty high by Rob Schmidt and Joe Lynch, they’re really inventive, and I knew the fans would expect nothing less than some more sick shit. I think we delivered in a pretty large way.
Shock: Because of the nature of the plot, this sounds much more action-oriented than the last two films. What’s the action to horror ratio?
O’Brien: This is a lot more action oriented. There is horror and gore throughout, but there are some awesome fights and I roll a city bus, just like The Fugitive. And that ain’t an easy task without killing anyone for real. There were a couple of films this is inspired by. One is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The other is that this is like Con Air meets Wrong Turn.
Shock: Talk a bit about the cast you had to work with…
O’Brien: Janet Montgomery was fantastic throughout the film. She’s in The Hills Run Red and the producers recommended her. She’s really good and lovely. Tamer Hassan is just a professional. An amazingly good actor and great fighter. Did you see Eastern Promises?
Shock: Yeah…
O’Brien: Where Viggo Mortensen is in the steam shower and there’s that knife fight. That’s Tamer playing Viggo. And I’ve got some serious fights between Tamer and Three Finger.
Shock: I hope not “balls out” like the Viggo fight…
O’Brien: Ah, no. [laughs] Not balls-out like that, but balls-out in action.
Shock: How did Montgomery hold up coming off a film like Hills then jumping right into more horror mayhem?
O’Brien: She was awesome. Because this film happens in real time, I shot the majority at night. So we’re going 6pm to 6am and it’s an exhausting schedule. We’re up on top of a mountain, down in a river. All that stuff. No one complained.
Shock: Every entry has paved the way for a sequel – have you done the same?
O’Brien: Yeah, and I think we did it in an inventive way. You think the movie is over but it’s not.
Attendees of Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles (running April 17th – 19th) will get a first look at the Wrong Turn 3 trailer!
Click here for our hi-res photo gallery!
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
