Leftovers make for thin plot in 'Wrong Turn'

"Wrong Turn" suffers a fate similar to that of many other horror and supernatural thrillers released in the last decade: It leaves you with the feeling that you're watching an episode of "The X-Files," only Mulder and Scully never show up. In this case, the feeling is especially strong, as the movie closely recalls an episode called "Home," featuring the inbred Peacock brothers. Perhaps Rupert Murdoch (the owner of the studio and the network behind the movie and the show) has a found a new way to repurpose horror.

Like the TV episode, "Wrong Turn" eventually leads to a murderous family with a genetic pattern that would hearten European royal families of yore - only these guys also eat their victims.

The film opens with a medical student (Desmond Harrington) driving through West Virginia on his way to Raleigh, N.C., for an important interview.

A back-up on the highway leads him to take a back roads alternative (evidently he hasn't seen any horror movies), where he plows into a disabled sport-utility vehicle belonging to a pair of well-heeled stoners (Kevin Zegers and Lindy Booth), a newly engaged couple (Jeremy Sisto and Emmanuelle Chriqui) and their depressed friend (Eliza Dushku).

No one is hurt in the accident, but the vehicles are totaled and it seems someone has deliberately tripped up the SUV. Surrounded by endless mountains and forest, the sextet splits up. Needless to say, once the young'uns are divided into smaller meals -- er, parties -- the pace picks up and the grisliness escalates.

When actually seen, the feral mountain men actually look a lot like the Peacock brothers. But then, maybe if you've seen one family of inbred, bloodthirsty killers, you've seen 'em all.

Rated R for strong violence and gore, some language and drug use, 95 minutes (Town Plaza Cinemas)