SCOOP: Wrong Turn 2 Starts Right Now

My supremely talented buddy Joe Lynch is finally getting his big break. He’s directing the straight to DVD sequel Wrong Turn 2 (cross your fingers and maybe we’ll get a theatrical).

Now you may be saying “Daniel Robert Epstein, why should we give a flying fuck about some DTV sequel?” My second answer would be because it stars Henry Rollins as Dale Murphy: a man who hosts a reality TV show called The Ultimate Survivalist only to find that he and the show's contestants unexpectedly have to survive a family of backwoods cannibals. My third answer would be that it stars super hottie Erica Leerhsen, who bared some God-given acting chops as well as the rest of what God gave her in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.

But my first and main answer is that Joe Lynch is really talented. I first met Joe when we were both working as field piece producers for the regional television station MetroTV. Within a month of Joe's hire, the executive producer was telling me make my work more like his. Instead of choking Joe for making me look bad I befriended him. We bonded over our love for horror movies. Now I love horror movies but Joe Lynch--he lives and breathes them.

In fact, Lynch won Filmmaker of the Year in The Village Voice (Best of Long Island edition, 1999) for his horror shorts mAHABRA and hiBeams.

The young director’s love of horror films comes through in his video for the band Strapping Young Lad. The song is called "Love" and the video wears its love for the Sam Raimi directed Evil Dead movies on its sleeve with extreme camerawork, fast paced shots and the shadow-infested cabin looming with smoke and decay. Raimi himself gave Lynch his blessing for the video and even offered Lynch his use of the classic but it was being used for Spider-Man 3. Of the video, Bruce “The Chin” Campbell exclaimed, "I dig it man!" Love premiered in 2005 on [iMTV’s Headbanger’s Ball.

See the video for Love by Strapping Young Lad.

Joe Lynch’s student films, a sampling of his music videos and personal blog can be found here.

Now, Wrong Turn 2 just started filming on May 29 in Vancouver, BC, and the rest of the cast is filled out with Crystal Lowe (Snakes On A Plane), Texas Battle (Final Destination 3), Aleksa Palladino (The Ring Two), Daniella Alonso (One Tree Hill), Kimberly Caldwell (American Idol Finalist), Matthew Currie Holmes (The Dead Zone) and Ken Kirzinger (Freddy Vs. Jason) are set to star. Produced by Jeff Freilich (Freddy’s Nightmares), Wrong Turn 2 is slated to bow exclusively on DVD in 2007.