Wrong Turn: Why The Cannibal Family Has Two Different Last Names
The Wrong Turn movies, which began in 2003, largely focus on the actions of a cannibal family, who have had two different last names in six movies.
Since its beginning in 2003, the Wrong Turn franchise has largely focused on its antagonistic cannibal family; interestingly, over the course of six movies, the family has two different last names. How is this possible?
Wrong Turn was directed by Rob Schmidt and written by Alan B. McElroy, who is known for his work with Todd McFarlane on Spawn and as the writer of Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers. McElroy only wrote the first Wrong Turn movie, which was the franchise's only theatrical release, but returned to contribute a script for the newest installment, Wrong Turn: The Foundation, which is reportedly set to release sometime in 2020. The rest of the movies in the franchise went direct to video, which is a likely bet for Wrong Turn 7, especially given the state of movie releases and their schedules because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Despite having many different directors and writers take a stab at the slasher meets cannibal horror movie franchise, there's been a decent sense of continuity overall. Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings, which was directed by Declan O'Brien, took a look back at the origins of the cannibal family, specifically the three brothers who were introduced in the first movie. These three characters—Saw Tooth, One Eye, and Three Finger—are the most well-known in the series. Three Finger is the only cannibal to appear in all six movies. After Wrong Turn 4, the fifth movie featured the patriarch of the family, Maynard Odets. Maynard was also in Wrong Turn and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, but was credited as Old Man/Old Timer in the first two movies. This created problems of its own, given the decision to retroactively add backstory that the original movie didn't create, but the last name difference is an even more intriguing oversight.
As stated in Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines, the cannibals' father is Maynard Odets. The backstory in other movies expands on the cannibal family, opening it up to include Ma, Pa, Brother, Sister, and eventually Baby Three Toes. While this largely happens during Wrong Turn 2 and Wrong Turn 3 respectively—which had different directors—Bloody Beginnings takes the franchise back to focus on the three original cannibals: Three Finger, Saw Tooth, and One Eye. After the original Wrong Turn, only Three Finger was alive, so the decision to add more cannibals and develop a backstory for the family was likely more of a practical decision.
The Odets family lived out in the West Virginia wilderness, and began with Maynard and his wife, Delilah. It's unknown what happened to Delilah, but the mutations began due to chemical run-off from a paper mill. Some of the cannibals have been created through inbreeding, but it's not confirmed whether Maynard and Delilah were directly related, or this happened down the line. In Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort, the original three cannibals were included again, but this time, the family was known as the Hillicker family, not the Odets family. The continuity between Wrong Turn 4 and Wrong Turn 5 makes sense, as they were both directed by Declan O'Brien, who became connected to the franchise with Wrong Turn 3.
O'Brien was replaced by director Valeri Milev; reportedly, Wrong Turn 6 was meant to complete the trilogy that O'Brien started with Wrong Turn 4. However, Milev took the characters that were known to the franchise and tweaked their last name, which changed the canon and made Wrong Turn 6 feel like more of a standalone film. Wrong Turn 6 does include the familial aspect of the movies, but puts the Hillicker family in charge of a resort instead. Also, the resort seems to be run by normal people. Given the familial mutation was caused by chemicals, if they were related to the cannibals directly, it's curious as to why they wouldn't also have visible mutations like the others did in Wrong Turn 2.
Wrong Turn 7 has been called a reboot, and will possibly feature a different cannibal family or group entirely; therefore, the reasoning behind the change to Wrong Turn canon with the family's last name was likely just a director's decision to go a different route.