For those of you who may have been unaware, Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort was released on DVD and Blu-ray and on all VOD platforms this past October. The sixth film in the franchise saw a new batch of twenty-something year olds heading into the woods of West Virginia when one of their friends inherits an old hotel near a famous hot spring. Wrong Turn 6 was the first entry with a new director, Valeri Minev, since Declan O’Brien took over the franchise for entries 3 – 5. Cast members this go around include Anthony Ilott, Chris Jarvis (“The Bill”), Aqueela Zoll, and Sadie Katz (House of Bad).
The movie has received mixed to fair reviews and currently has a 4.4 rating on IMDB based on 3,360 reviews. While Last Resort failed to make the Top 20 DVD Sales Chart during its debut week, the sales total as of November 2nd was $953,000 – roughly $250,000 away from its production budget. This wasn’t too bad after only two weeks, and with holiday buyers hitting stories beginning this Friday, Wrong Turn 6 had the chance to become a moderate box office success. That is until Fox Entertainment had to pull all copies of the movie on all outlets.
Why, you may ask? Well, it’s not because the movie was terrible, as some of you will probably allege in jest. (I, myself, liked the movie.) During one of the early scenes in the movie, two characters are out getting groceries and are confronted by the nosey town cop. A missing persons board is spotted several times before the cop posts a missing persons poster on the board himself. Apparently, one of the posters used on the board is the real life missing persons poster of Stacia Purcell. Stacie was officially declared missing on October 30, 2013, although her body was found several days later. She had died from a massive heart attack and slipped into a river shortly after. She would be 66-years-old today.
When her family heard that Purcell’s picture was being used in a horror movie without their consent, they launched action to prevent her image from being used anymore. They also claim that seeing her missing persons photo in a horror film has caused them pain and suffering. Part of the legal proceedings against Fox Entertainment directs the production and distribution company to pull Wrong Turn 6 from all future pressings and broadcasts until the matter is resolved. As of this posting the suit hasn’t been settled with a verdict or margin of reward.
It’s unclear whether Last Resort will resurface on DVD and VOD again. Editors can quickly edit out sections of the particular scene or omit it from the movie all together. However, in the meantime, Wrong Turn 6 copies are being sold for upwards of $45 on Ebay. Who knew that such a bizarre franchise would have its own collectors item?
It won’t be available again. They will never repress this crap, they’ll just write it off forever. It’s not worth repressing it, for such a tiny cash-grab movie. I don’t know who told you they were selling DVD copies of the film for $45, because I just saw one sell for $10. Not a collectors item, but more of a ‘I need to buy this in case it gets expensive later’, which it won’t! It’s not Night of the living dead for God’s sakes. lol