[year/rating] 2002 R [genre] Redneck Horror [director] Eli Roth [starring] Rider Strong Jordan Ladd James DeBello Cerina Vincent

Tagline

Cabin Fever... catch it.

Summary Capsule

Five college kids go visiting PlagueTown on their spring break.

Mutant Meter

Movie Store [proceeds go toward monthly MRFH upkeep]

Check out this movie in VHS or DVD, and the soundtrack CD

Kyle's Rating: You can be better than you are (doo doo!): you could be swinging on a star!
Kyle's Review: I was too busy with school and assorted activities to go see Cabin Fever when it was released in theaters. I figured I’d catch it eventually, but then I ran out of time and didn’t get around to it. Whatever. Sometimes I prefer watching crazy horror films on my own television, so I can cry and sob like a “little girl” when I get scared. It’s cool. Meanwhile, I read reviews and viewer responses on the internet, just to see what people thought.

"Left along to their own devices, it would probably be a fun, memorable, and sticky week for this group of friends and lovers."

Wow. For the most part, you’d think this was one of the worst films ever made. At a certain site that purports to be cooler than it is, the talkbackers were seriously trashing Cabin Fever and made it out to be practically the end of the horror genre, if not the world. They had gone and wasted money on a film populated with despicable characters in a very twisted and inappropriate cartoon version of reality, where bad stuff like murder and date rape and squirrel shooting happened and prejudicial and racist opinions were voiced and the flesh-eating disease was the hero of the picture, because all these disgruntled viewers wanted all the characters dead. Yikes! I sure was excited to see this movie... not...

But actually, I still was. Because a lot of the important reviewers out there (spend a little time and you can find them easily) really loved Cabin Fever, despite its faults, and while there was still disagreement over whether or not it was a CLASSIC, they thought it was pretty awesome and worth seeing at least once, if not many many times. It wasn’t enough to get me into the theaters, especially once it was only playing like 30 minutes away and it was hard enough finding time to read Walden. It was enough to get me to rent Cabin Fever as soon as it was out, and Cabin Fever was good enough that I watched the rental copy twice and as soon as I finish this review I’m headed out to buy the movie. It’s that good, folks. I’ll send you the receipt, if you’d like!

I must warn you, however, that according to current statistical probability theory, Cabin Fever probably is not a film for you. It is very gruesome, in a “there’s blood everywhere” and “omigosh that ___ just split open and inside it looks like a red version of the goo inside those Cadbury eggs!” It is very inappropriate, in a “Those characters just used a racist slur! Those other characters throw around ‘gay’ in a ‘this is modern lingo’ way but it still seems homophobic!” way. It is very upsetting, in a “did that character just touch that girl without her consent, and oh no, actual nudity in a modern horror film!” way. And, a lot of times, it makes little or only crazy sense, especially when it comes to certain backwoods characters and backwoods situations that would seem to be easily resolved in the “real” world but become horrible plot points leading to infection and extremely bloody death instead. To a lot of viewers, none of the characters are sympathetic or particularly good, and the only motivation that is understood (by this slice of viewership) is the one of the flesh-easting disease, ‘cause it just reproduces and reproduces and has some shares of the gross. I hope that joke made sense, because I’m not sure if it did or not. Damn.

Theoretically, we all saw (or will see) the same Cabin Fever. However, I think that myself and people like myself will enjoy Cabin Fever because we are rather different than most people. Seriously. Ignoring the irony that people reading this review are internet surfers, let me make a kind of blanket statement (excluding you, of course, beautiful MRFH reader!) that a whole lot of internet dwellers are kind of naïve and have an optimistic view of life and humanity. When they see a movie with characters that seem offensive and/or do offensive things, they go “That’s awful! No one is really like that! Very unrealistic! Three thumbs down!” Remember, though: offensiveness is in the eye of the beholder. And I’m not sure what it is like where all of you live, but in my section of existence, drug use, general drunkenness, a strong desire to have sex, selfishness, irresponsibility, and an overall nihilistic attitude towards life prevails. It isn’t that I understand and recognize the young group of college students at the center of Cabin Fever. It’s that I’m one of them. In fact... argh! My skin is peeling off! Help me!

I’m just now getting into plot, sorry. A group of college kids who are done with college exams (apparently in the fall, or something) and who may or may not have just graduated have rented a cabin in the woods of somewhere and are bringing a whole lot of beer and hormones for a week of casual debauchery. There’s the true couple, Jeff (Joey Kern) and Marcy (Cerina Vincent), who have lots of sex and have their pleasure principles down cold. There’s the would-be couple, Paul (Rider Strong) and Karen (Jordan Ladd), who have been friends for-like-ever and seem to both plan on consummating something at some point during this week and probably would have before. Except that Paul is too shy and too much of a good guy and Karen goes for other not-so-nice guys, as we get a hint of when she mentions an excursion to check out UC Berkeley and meeting three guys who kept her inebriated for five days by only letting her drink beer (because she, apparently, had no say in matter [look for the upcoming Kyle Rants: Modern Sexual Politics Among Young Women coming soon!]). Finally, there is Bert (James DeBello), who gets bored with wilderness existence within 20 minutes of arrival and plans only to drink beer and shoot at squirrels with a BB gun.

Left along to their own devices, it would probably be a fun, memorable, and sticky week for this group of friends and lovers. But, thanks to an unwanted bacterial guest whose origins you never really discover, their week is sticky for another reason: because their diseased flesh is sloughing off by the pound and the blood is just getting everywhere!

Yeah, okay. On the great ruler of manners, ethics, and human civility, these kids come up short. But they’re up against their own upbringing (probably lots of MTV and poor examples set by ‘90s bands in sex and drug-filled music videos), their surroundings (none of them seem like hardcore wilderness types; they just wanted a secluded place to run wild in), and the crazy hicks and maniacs that everyone knows live out in the country and operate the convenience stores and become small-town law enforcement. They run up against stoner dudes, stoner cops, angry fellow campers with shotguns and strong sense of property lines, and, of course, a strange flesh-eating disease that goes from gooey dog to man to the main cast. There’s a sense of powerlessness at being corrupted by an evil that can’t even be seen, there’s the expected turning of each other on each other, and there’s a cynicism that even the good-hearted main hero Paul eventually succumbs to when he’s forced to become a survivalist.

It’s gooey, it’s icky, and it’s a wild combination of genres that this review doesn’t even delve into (I could dedicate whole volumes to the crazy mullet kid who bites people and is really into pancakes, but no). Like I said, you probably won’t like it, although if you’re here reading this that’s a good start. Just don’t hold it against me if you don’t like it and/or you vomit, because come on. What do you expect with a flesh-eating disease? Oh, don’t eat any chili or anything while you’re watching. You can imagine why.

Justin's Rating: Repeat after me: kah-war-ann-teene
Justin's Review: To make a good horror film, you need to create a threat that plays directly upon my (our) personal fears. Any horror movie’s success is usually based on how good it is at preying upon fears that most people have. Most people are not too fond of sharks, less fond of hundreds of poisonous spiders, and would rather skip demon possessions altogether. If a filmmaker decides to tackle a subject that isn’t as universally scary -- say dolls or little round spheres -- then they have to work extra-hard to build up a believable fear factor in their audience.

"This gang ranges from unsympathetic to slightly-less-unsympathetic, bandying about the F-bomb as if they were competing with South Park over a bar bet."

Cabin Fever didn't break a sweat to get me hugging a pillow, crying into my dog’s fur, and rocking myself to sleep in a corner as I cradle my Nerf Auto-Cannon (hey, it’s the best weapon I’ve got, okay?). The fears here are two-fold. First you have the vast woodlands of Redneck Country, which produces more anxiety per acre than the entire of the Canadas itself. Usher in some obtuse, irresponsible college students into this enriching environment, and then unleash the Plague To End All Plagues upon them -- aaaaand that’s a wrap! I had a friend in college who seriously couldn’t sleep for a week following a class that studied epidemics and plagues, and I can relate. If you’ve ever read a real-life account of some of the horrors that modern diseases can unleash (such as the Ebola virus in The Hot Zone), then you really never need to fear a simple masked boogeyman ever again. This is far, far scarier.

Trapped out in a cabin in the woods -- a scenario that has always proven safe to any young adult in the horror film genre -- these "friends" become the target of a rapidly-spreading disease that causes you to bleed out from just about every pore that the special effects guys can rig up. Not that you really care about them; this gang ranges from unsympathetic to slightly-less-unsympathetic, bandying about the F-bomb as if they were competing with South Park over a bar bet. Let ‘em eat viral infection, we say… but do we really mean it? As we the audience has to sit through an hour and a half of increasingly disturbing visuals and scenarios, fear leaks out of the movie and infests us as well.

Cabin Fever skitters around like that nervous friend who kept trying to cure your hiccups through surprise shouts -- "Did that scare you?" "How about now?" "Now? Ah… dang." The homages are vast, ranging from the seventies-style backwoods creepfest (think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Deliverance) to the brief bouts of comedy (Evil Dead 2) to pretty much every outbreak film ever made (the similarities to Dreamcatcher are eerie).

How successful was it? I’m not… entirely sure. This would’ve been a far better movie had at least one or two of the main characters been less of the raging idiots/jerks that they come off as, but at the same time I understand the director was trying to create a hopeless situation by depriving the audience of any intelligent, brave characters or possible avenues of escape. All I can say is that I sat very still for most of my viewing, unnerved and twisted up in my stomach (Memento and Donnie Darko also made me feel this way… just too much tension to deal with, I guess).

Vastly gory, Cabin Fever might well be one of the few true horror films of this new decade, refusing to settle into established ruts, but rather striking off into the deep, dark woods… never to be seen again.

"Why yes, I am a secret pervert. How'd you guess?" Ahh! WATER! Run away! Close your mouth, boys. You're letting the flies in.

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• Apparently this Rider Strong fellow used to be on the show “Boy Meets World.” Kyle has never seen an episode of this before ever, but thinks that Strong is really cool in the role of Paul and certainly could have a feature film role (at least in horror flicks) ahead of him. A lot of knocks on Cabin Fever attack the cast of kids and one particular doofy deputy, but personally Kyle (who often writes in third person) thinks that this adds to the unique texture of the movie.
• As has been observed by many reviewers and immature people, “Rider Strong” sounds like a porno name.
• Writer and director Eli Roth (who cameos as the guy with the big bag of pot) is really into horror movies and tried to pay homage to his favorites, so look for Evil Dead (the cabin) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre references sprinkled throughout in terms of tone and vague nuances.
• Don’t sit near -- or touch -- Dennis
• Jars of fox urine -- have friends like you’ve never had before!
• Smokey the Clown ?
• Do these kids know any adjectives or verbs than the F-word and "gay"?
• Mmm… water!
• "Handling A Crisis Through Rifle And Bat Application"
• Erm… swimming with an infected corpse might not be… well… you go right ahead
• The number of times this film turns a scene from sex to scare

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

Kind of, because (according to the imdb.com) “The credits list characters named Shemp and Fake Shemp. This is another homage to the Evil Dead series. 'Sam Raimi' called his stand-ins Fake Shemps, also in homage, but to the Three Stooges. The Stooges used stand-ins for Shemp when his health was failing.” So you can see that. And I (Kyle) guess there’s one more scene after the credits, but I didn’t know so I didn’t see it, so maybe it doesn’t actually exist. Whoa, that’s existential, eh? Oh, I just did some “research” and found out that Roth intended the scene that now plays over the start of the end credits to be at the end, but Lion’s Gate tested this version and it tested better, so there you go. I don’t think this section of the standard Mutant review has ever had so much content before, so I sort of wanted to set a precedent. Awesome!

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

While filming a particularly bloody scene, Rider Strong decided to go for a walk in the woods between setups. Covered head to toe in blood, he happened upon a group of 35 school girls, who were on a field trip. The girls screamed at the sight of this blood-drenched hiker, and then screamed even louder when they realized the hiker was the star of “Boy Meets World.” The girls chased Rider through the woods, who eventually made it back to the film crew, and vowed never to wander off between scenes again.

The original killer dog in "Cabin Fever" was so old and tired that all of its scenes had to be re-shot with a new dog. With no time or money to find a replacement, the producers cast a real police attack dog that was so vicious and unpredictable that no actors could appear with it on camera. The crew would hide behind trucks during its scenes, and cameras were operated by remote control.

Apparently, though Eli Roth has said that his original version of Cabin Fever was “monkeyed” with by Lion’s Gate, the cuts and changes don’t sound too overwhelming tinkerous (new word!) and there are no immediate plans for a director’s cut DVD.

Groovy Quotes

Karen: Bert, what the hell is that?
Bert: Huh? Oh, I'm gonna go shoot some squirrels.
Paul: Why would you wanna kill squirrels?
Bert: 'Cause they're gay.
Karen: Bert, don't be a ****ing retard.
Bert: I'm kidding! I don't care if they're gay or straight, I'll kill 'em either way.

Dennis: Pancakes!

Karen: That guy asked for our help. We lit him on fire! You'll understand if I'm not in a particularly social mood.

Store clerk: Boy, you wanna give me one good reason why you would steal a Snickers bar?
Bert: The nougat?

DVD Review

[Kyle] I haven’t explored the DVD too much, but the documentary “Beneath the Skin” is really cool and informative for people who make it through the movie and want to know “hey, how did they get that guy to dissolve like that?” And there are five different commentaries! Wow! If you like that sort of thing, hey, go crazy!

[Justin] This disc has one of the most… um, interesting animated menus I’ve seen in quite some time. It starts out with a girl shaving her legs, and the "cuts" on her leg form the menu items (and bleed appropriately). Weirdness, supreme. The oddity doesn’t end there: check out the special features menu for the "Family Version" of this film (a one minute cut with a happy song played over it), a "Chick-Vision" option proports to automatically block out the most frightening scenes when they approach, three inexplicable episodes of "The Rotten Fruit" (a foul-mouthed Claymation sitcom), a "Beneath The Skin" making-of documentary, and a very bizarre clip of a girl doing martial arts forms to a rock ‘n roll song. For no reason. Obviously, the makers had a blast putting together a fun little disc, and I can appreciate that. But where’s the movie trailer? Anywhere? Anywhere?

Soundtrack Review

Pretty cool score by Nathan Barr. There are comparisons to the score for John Carpenter’s The Thing, which seem like exaggerations at best, but it is memorable and blend in very well when it counts. They also had Angelo Badalamenti (who did a lot of the Twin Peaks and David Lynch film music) contribute three eerie tracks.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Outbreak
• Identity
• Wrong Turn