Wrong Turn 2021 features a surprising but fun connection to Cabin In The Woods. The original Wrong Turn arrived in 2003 and saw a group of friends get lost in the woods and menaced by a group of inbred cannibals. The movie was a solid hit that has since evolved into a cult favorite, and it also spawned a long-running franchise. Joe Lynch’s Wrong Turn 2 may have gone straight to DVD but it received great reviews and a further four sequels followed.
Wrong Turn 2021 is a reboot in the truest sense, taking only the title and basic concept to tell a brand new story. This entry instead sees a group of friends hiking along the Appalachian Trail and disturbing a cult dubbed The Foundation, who cut themselves off from the rest of society over a century before. Rather than deformed cannibals, the movie offers a more nuanced group of antagonists, though their methods for dealing with “trespassers” are no less brutal.
A big theme in Wrong Turn 2021 is about subverting stereotypes, and not rushing to judge others based on their appearances or beliefs. This includes the supporting character of Nate (Tim de Zarn), who reappears several times in the movie. He acts as something of a harbinger of doom to the group before they start their hike, and while he’s a bit of a jerk they also have fun mocking him despite his offer to help guide them. If Tim de Zarn looks familiar, that’s because he played the role of Mordecai – AKA “The Harbinger” – in Cabin In The Woods.
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Mordecai was a play on the creepy locals who often appeared in 1980s slashers like Crazy Ralph in Friday The 13th. Their function in the plot is to warn the traveling group of teens or young adults to say away from the cabin/shack/abandoned summer camp or they’ll end up dead; this advice is always ignored and carnage ensues. This was Mordecai’s quite literal role in Cabin In The Woods, with De Zarn giving a menacing turn as the disdainful petrol station attendant the characters ignore at their own peril, though it’s later revealed he’s also a part of the ritual they’re unknowingly a part of.
Nate is a tad more grounded than Tim de Zarn’s Cabin In The Woods portrayal, but it’s very unlikely there wasn’t a meta element to his casting for Wrong Turn 2021. Nate is played as something of a broad stereotype, an ignorant local who even beats up Matthew Modine’s Scott when he tries to mount a rescue mission for his daughter. The finale offers a nice subversion of expectations with Nate’s actions in the finale, however, which again plays to the reboot’s core themes of not rushing to judgment.