* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Three-Finger really MadeOfIron and surviving everything the characters throw at him, or in fact triplet or quadruplet brothers, who do keep getting KilledOffForReal [[BackupTwin only for another one]] to show up?
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: 'Wish I may' by Breaking Benjamin and 'Middle of Nowhere' by Blank Theory playing over the end credits.
* ClicheStorm: The first film rigorously follows cliches. This is averted in the sequels, which often slaughter the cast indiscriminately (often randomly killing the "obvious" leads early on)
* DamselScrappy: Carly! She spends a majority of the first film screaming "I CAN'T!" This is even referenced in the commentary, where she is referred to as "Annoying Girl".
* OneSceneWonder:
** Halley, the female rock climber from the opening scene, makes a good impression due to showing some decent resourcefulness and expressive acting while trying to escape from the hillkillers.
** The CreepyGasStationAttendant played by Creator/WayneRobson is only in two short scenes but is delightfully eerie in both of them.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** [[Film/KickAss2 Night Bitch]] is Francine.
** Speaking of superheroes, viewers who are fans of the DC Comics and its animated productions can recognize [[ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier Batman]] and [[WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman Sapphire Stagg]] as Scott and Carly and [[WesternAnimation/BatmanYearOne Catwoman]] as Jessie.
** [[Series/{{Supernatural}} Death]] is Three Finger.
* TearJerker: [[TearJerker/WrongTurn Now has its own page]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Halley, the climber from the beginning, could have escaped the Hillkillers and resurfaced later.
* TheWoobie:
** Jessie. [[spoiler:Right before the events of the movie, her boyfriend dumps her (by just leaving a message on her answering machine, no less!), and her best friends decide to take her hiking in the woods to help her get her mind off it. Within a couple of days in those woods, all of her friends are dead, and she's nearly killed herself. And even though she never outright says it, [[ItsAllMyFault she blames herself for their deaths]].]]
** As much of a DamselScrappy she is, you can’t help but feel a little bad for Carly after [[spoiler:Scott's death, especially when you remember that they had recently gotten engaged. The way she just sobs, "I want him back!" is a bit of a TearJerker]].