Wrong Turn Review

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 40% of 83 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.22/10. The consensus is: "An unremarkable slasher flick that fails to distinguish itself from others of its ilk". On Metacritic, Wrong Turn have a score of 32 out of a 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale.

Barbara Ellen of The Times wrote "This could have been a half decent cross between a Romero zombie movie and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but in the end the gore is so ridiculously overdone and the script so lame, that it undermines all sense of suspense".

William Thomas of Empire said "It's better than any of the official Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels. Which is probably a good thing".

Scott Foundas of Variety criticized the Wrong Turn for being "A negative pickup by Fox", adding that "[it was] dumped into theaters on Friday without benefit of press previews", resulting in "frightless torpor".

A one out of four stars was awarded to the film by Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle who wrote "This was already tired stuff when cult fave Sleepaway Camp came out in 1983, and it's downright comatose by now". BBC's Nev Pierce gave the film two out of five, while Anita Gates of The New York Times called it "[a] lazy would-be horror film".