Obviously inspired by the recent success and indeed resurgence in cannibal road movies, Detour makes it’s debut on DVD in the UK on the 23rd of August and it is quite good.
Directed by Steve Taylor and Produced by David Michael Latt, Detour tells the story of seven ravers who crash their RV in the desert and encounter a pack of drug addled cannibalistic psychos.
When watching the film, I felt that the start was quite poor but later discovered that the UK version is minus the opening sequence which was specially directed by Neal Fredericks of Blair Witch fame. I also noticed that Tiffany Shepis is credited as appearing but I never saw her.
From what I can gather, the American version features an opening sequence which sees Tiffany Shepis and a friend chased by the cannibals and eventually caught and disembowled whilst still alive. The scene is included in a different cut of the film which can be found on the U.S. DVD.
Despite a purely tagged on beginning, the film soon picks up and you are able to root for the characters. The film looks really good, benefits from decent effects work and has good acting to boot.
The only flaw in my opinion was the terrible dialogue at the start of the film as I certainly don’t know any teens that talk that way, but then I don’t live in America.
I still find it strange that we didn’t get the alternate opening sequence, as the BBFC are far more relaxed about ratings than the MPAA.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Whilst Detour would appear to be a ‘Wrong Turn’ rip-off at first sight, it is actually a lot closer to ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ in terms of structure and setting so you might actually enjoy this. It is quite slowly paced but I like the fact that the film takes it’s time to let you get to know the characters. If The Asylum continue to make films of this standard we will start to see some really good low budget horror movies over the next few months.
