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"How could a bunch of hillbillies buy a mansion like this?" The viewer hears this on the television as they turn on the first episode of The Beverly Hillbillies (Alberts). The camera soon turns to show the ragged and rugged people in front of their beautiful new home. As the gate opens to let them in, their four-seater makeshift buggy barely makes it to the house. The camera soon cuts away to show the old wooden shack they lived in before they struck money. Soon these people start settling in their new home, and they are met with "real world" realities: fitting in with society; as the show portrays, they do not meet the standards. This show started a string of later movies to follow the stereotype portrayed in this television series. Once this show became a hit in the public eye, directors wanted to step up the production of wrongly depicting Appalachian societies. They took it a step over the line when they no longer showed them as clueless but as dangerous. 

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As shows and films depicting people of Appalachia progressed, they only created a worsening image of who they were as a group. As movies moved from the 1972 premiere of Deliverance to the 2003 premiere of Wrong Turn, they only created a giant hole to climb out of when it came to the image of the Appalachians. As Hollywood has depicted other stereotypes, this specific one has stuck and is not leaving. The negative Appalachian stereotype has been seen worldwide in multiple movies and shows. This representation is inaccurate and deeply affects that region's culture and people. 

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The societies of Appalachia are located along the Appalachian mountains that span through Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and all of West Virginia. Even though the scenery is beautiful, it is one of the poorest regions in all of America. There is also a high rate of addiction and usage of drugs. Because of the extremity of these problems, Hollywood has been able to portray the region's people in a bad light. But what movie connoisseurs do not see is the reality of life away from the screen. As films are made, Hollywood keeps making the existing stereotype even more prominent as they use all of the insulting aspects of Appalachian life more noticeably. Ultimately,'" Appalachians in the movies are often portrayed as being morally and sexually depraved, lawless and violent—all of which shows the region as a fantasy'" (Porter). The films Deliverance and Wrong Turn are prime examples of this misguided representation.

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A canoeing trip is nothing short of a great time, but suddenly, as you look up, a deformed boy playing ominous banjo music appears on a bridge; this can make a smile fade as you travel further down a river toward a rugged southern Appalachian region. In the 1972 film Deliverance, directed by John Boorman, a group of friends led by Burt Reynolds float down the Cahulawassee River, where they encounter people who turn their trip into a nightmare. A group of depraved and diabolic degenerates, who happen to be from the Appalachian region, set their sights on this group of city boys who are not familiar with their surroundings. This leads to a series of unfortunate events that leave the "degenerates" as the villains in the situation. The tourists are captured from their tents at night, their bones are broken, and they roll down hills to escape from the crazy crowd out to get them. 

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Towards the end of this award-winning film, they are finally captured by their predecessors. The scene depicts how savage these unmannered beasts are as they rape one of the men in the canoeing group. The degenerate tells the man to bend over and squeal like a pig as he forces himself onto the helpless city boy. The depiction of this inbred caused crowds to believe that people from Appalachia fit the script, and after this film, many quotes and lines became famous for their vulgar content. The lines are frequently used, especially around people who reside in the region of the movie, even though many inhabitants of Appalachia have never experienced something of that intensity. 

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The unrelenting stereotype of degeneracy follows the Appalachians everywhere. For instance, Megan House described an experience where she walked through a store, and when the cashier heard her distinct country accent, there was a sudden urge for the young lady behind the counter to say, "you sure do have a purdy mouth" in an innocent joking way. And to no one's surprise, she was paraphrasing a famous line from Deliverance uttered by a nasty, toothless mountain man as he prepares to rape a city-slicker tourist (House). Some quotes never leave the minds of people who watch movies, and this one is easily remembered, especially if that gruesome scene has ever graced their eyes. As the cashier makes a somewhat harmless joke, the stereotype of an Appalachian remains instilled within her. As she continued her shopping, House realized that in the mind of the cashier, she was clearly from Appalachia because her voice sounded like the antagonist who was "violent, stupid, subhuman products of inbreeding. She didn't even have enough respect for us to say any of this under her breath" (House). 

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As these events transpired, nothing could be done to help their cause because they talk and have a unique accent, just like the people in Deliverance, so they had to be just like the mountain men from the movie. Depraved, brutal, and deviant is the stereotype that the Appalachians face when people judge them from the outside. In cases like this, it shows how "people all over the world think they know something about Appalachia because they've seen 'Deliverance,'" and they are mistaken because they only see how Hollywood depicts them (House). There is nothing to help these people from the criticisms they have faced their whole lives, but another movie about thirty years later came out. It was a blockbuster about Appalachia, but it took an unsuspecting turn. 

A turn for the worst was taken as a group of young friends became stranded in the big and beautiful West Virginia, but nothing was beautiful about their situation. The 2003 production Wrong Turn, directed by Rob Schmidt, portrays the natives of the land as cannibalistic creatures who hunt and eat their prey all in their territory. The young group of kids headed by Eliza Dushku crashed their car driving down a remote mountain and soon became hunted. Much like how they hunt animals with traps and bows, they hunt people who seem to be their next meal. Living in a run-down shack with more than fifty cars from their prior "visitors," the cannibals attempted to round up the outsiders in their run-down house. These cannibalistic creatures had grimacing smiles, sharp teeth, matted hair, and torn-up skin. Once again, producers used the stereotyped inbred mountain men to portray them as villains. The movie was a success, but only at the box office. This production never sparked controversy amongst the viewers because it was just another movie about people audiences think they know. But, "when it premiered last month, Eli Roth's film The Green Inferno, about a group of social justice activists who are eaten alive by an Amazonian rainforest tribe, was met with boycotts and much controversy. Yet none of the many Appalachian-exploitation films have received any organized protest" (House). 

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As the films progressed, the stereotypical Appalachian became so overlooked that it was almost normal for people to look at these movies without raising a question on whether or not the storyline was somewhat relevant to the people the producers were portraying. Oblivious to the fact that these movies are incredibly dehumanizing to the people being displayed, it has become generally accepted that these movies are just another example of Appalachian culture. They are wrong in many ways because the people of the mountains are just ordinary people who do their day-to-day chores. They may be different, but their work and morals are all the same as ours. The outcry is invisible for the people of Appalachia, though, because they are impoverished, they are portrayed as powerless, "that's certainly always been the case with the film" (House). There is no pushback regarding the world of Appalachia being slandered because it implies that it is already impoverished. "What Appalachia needs is not another book, but an entirely new story to tell about itself. In popular culture, if Appalachia gets depicted at all, it's in a negative way. Think 'Deliverance'" ("Appalachia Doesn't Need"). As people think about Appalachia, their mind delivers them straight into the world of Deliverance simply because they are uneducated about the region. There are few positives, and movies like Deliverance will never show them, such as portraying the natives as debauched, dissolute, or dishonest. These movies portray every aspect of Appalachian culture in a negative light, but there is more to the complex people than the outside world may think.

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These two movies forever impacted the Appalachian stereotype, but there is more to the region that others should know. Hollywood made villains out of regular people and, in doing this, created a monster with "overused stereotypes about Appalachian work ethic, addiction and general 'backwardness'" (Knudsen). Around the world, the stereotype of Appalachia has been seen, but only in a negative light. There is no connection between what is seen on screen and what happens in the mountains: instead, more movies created a lie that stuck with audiences forever. Because of these poor depictions, an accent or uneven smile from country folk will always be noticed. There is nothing that can be done to get rid of a stereotype in a short amount of time, but the image of the beautiful region of Appalachia can be swayed towards something better than it is. Hollywood has done no justice and never will, but a stereotype can only be debunked if seen in person. If a wrong turn is made along a road trip, rest and look outside at the beauty of nature. The scariest sight may be a southern grandma with a sweet tea jug.