After two decades of delivering blood-soaked thrills, the Wrong Turn franchise slams the door shut with its final entry — Wrong Turn 8: Final Chapter. Directed by horror visionary Kelsey Marr, this 2025 installment is a raw, unrelenting ride through Appalachia’s darkest nightmares. Fans of the series expecting brutal kills, eerie backwoods tension, and deranged hillbilly horror won’t be disappointed. But what elevates this final outing isn’t just its gore — it’s the emotional stakes, atmospheric dread, and the bitter question: Can evil ever truly die?
Wrong Turn 8 wastes no time diving into chaos. The film opens with a haunting flashback to 2003 — the events of the original film are recontextualized as part of a generational curse. We learn that the cannibalistic family of inbred killers, long thought wiped out, were merely sleeping — buried under decades of blood and bones, waiting for a reason to rise again.
Enter Avery Collins (played by Maya Hawke), the daughter of one of the original survivors. Traumatized by her family’s past and fueled by revenge, Avery assembles a team of documentary filmmakers to journey into Harpers Pass, hoping to uncover the truth — and put it to rest forever. But when their equipment starts disappearing and team members go missing, it becomes clear: they’ve made one final wrong turn.
While the original trio — Three Finger, Saw Tooth, and One Eye — haunt this film like ghosts of horror past, Final Chapter introduces a terrifying new antagonist: "Mother Hollow", a monstrous matriarch figure who has risen as the twisted guardian of the cannibal legacy. Half-human, half-legend, her silent presence dominates the film. With sharp bone armor and eyes that glow in the dark like coals, she embodies generational evil — an evolution of terror that’s both symbolic and savage.
The kills, as expected, are outrageously brutal. From bear traps used as guillotines to skinning scenes that’ll test even seasoned horror fans, Marr ensures that every scream matters. Yet surprisingly, there’s restraint in how violence is used — many of the most disturbing moments are left to the imagination, lingering longer because of it.
Cinematographer Luis Navarro crafts a claustrophobic forest so rich with menace it becomes a character itself. The mist never lifts. Trees creak as if whispering warnings. Blood seeps into roots. The desolate ghost towns and abandoned mining tunnels add layers of decay, suggesting that evil has long outlived the people who once tried to fight it.
One scene, where Avery wanders through a derelict church filled with human bones carved into crosses, might be the most visually arresting in the series. It’s a reminder that the Wrong Turn saga has never just been about gore — it’s about isolation, madness, and man’s descent into primal fear.
Maya Hawke delivers a raw, physical performance as Avery — a woman tormented by loss and duty. Her portrayal is less “final girl” and more “reluctant warrior,” and her slow transformation from scared outsider to defiant avenger is riveting. In a particularly gut-wrenching monologue by a campfire, she recounts her father’s dismemberment — not for shock, but to show how trauma scars the soul. It’s powerful stuff.
Supporting performances include Jeremy Allen White as the cocky sound guy who gets humbled (and gutted), and Park Hae-soo as a mysterious forest hermit who may be more than he seems. The film smartly avoids caricatures, giving each character a purpose — and a moment to bleed.
Final Chapter is less about surviving cannibals and more about confronting inheritance. Avery is not just running from monsters — she’s running from the sins her family buried. The idea that trauma lives in bloodlines, that violence echoes through generations, gives this film a chilling philosophical edge. At one point, a character says, “Some wrong turns ain’t accidents. They’re fate.”
In this way, the movie’s final act becomes unexpectedly emotional. When Avery must choose between killing a child raised by the cannibals or letting the curse live on, the line between justice and vengeance blurs completely.
Wrong Turn 8: Final Chapter is not just a horror film — it’s a full-bodied scream into the void. It’s a love letter to the genre’s nastiest corners and a reflective coda on what it means to truly end a nightmare. Brutal, bloody, and surprisingly thoughtful, it ties the franchise together with spiked wire and burning torches.
As the final scene fades — a burning forest, a bloodied survivor crawling toward uncertain light — one can’t help but wonder: Did we finally escape the woods? Or are we just deeper in?
⭐ Rating: 8.5/10
Pros:
✔️ Gripping performance by Maya Hawke
✔️ Smart writing with thematic depth
✔️ Terrifying new villain
✔️ Gory but not gratuitous
✔️ Atmospheric cinematography
Cons:
❌ Pacing drags slightly in Act II
❌ Not for the faint of heart
