Eliza Dushku takes pride in the ending of Wrong Turn

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I have seen the 2003 backwoods slasher WRONG TURN several times, and while I know that the cast gets whittled down to just Eliza Dushku as Jessie Burlingame and Desmond Harrington as Chris Flynn, off the top of my head I couldn't have told you which character inflicts what sort of damage on the inbred mutant killers Three Finger (Julian Richings), Saw-Tooth (Garry Robbins), and One-Eye (Ted Clark) at the end of the film. Dushku could tell you, though. As it turns out, all this time later she still feels a sense of pride over being able to deliver an injurious blow to one of the slashers in that film.

WRONG TURN was directed by Rob Schmidt from a screenplay by HALLOWEEN 4's Alan B. McElroy. In the story, 

Jessie and her four friends (played by Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, Kevin Zegers and Lindy Booth) are on a road trip that gets derailed in the West Virginia mountains, where they and another stranded traveler, Chris (Desmond Harrington), end up on the run from a trio of hideously deformed hillbillies. One by one, each of her pals are picked off, until only Jessie and Chris remain — forcing them to go on the offensive.

Speaking with Yahoo, Dushku revealed that when they were filming the final confrontation with the murderous trio she found out that plans had changed and the Chris character was going to be the one to hit Three Finger with an axe, something she had expected to do herself. Feeling that Jessie should get that heroic moment, Dushku stood up to Schmidt and the producers.

She's watched all of her friends be brutally murdered one by one by one and at the last minute they want to change that kill shot moment and give it to the guy? I'm like, 'Those weren't even his friends!', you know? I was like, 'I have to have that kill shot moment!' And I fought for it, and I remember calling my mom from the set and going, 'I don't want to be a diva, but this is really important to me. It feels in my gut like I have to be the one that drills the axe into this dude's skull!'"

Well, she did get to axe him, but she didn't bury the axe in his skull. She actually chops him in the chest… and Three Finger survived that "kill shot" to come back for a mid-credits jump scare and some sequels… Still, Jessie did get to deliver that injury. Dushku didn't mention it in the interview, but Jessie also shoots an arrow into the back of Saw-Tooth's head, so maybe that's where the skull confusion came in. These hero moments can be seen the interview video below.

WRONG TURN only came out 15 years ago, but it was recently announced that a remake is in the works.