Along for the ride are Jeff and Marcy, an established couple, as well as Bert, the comedic relief fodder. Paul is essentially the main character and he fancies the pants off his childhood friend Karen. I’d also like to commend Roth for not featuring the usual group dynamics seen in a cabin horror. There’s a certain reckless charm that comes from risky directors operating on their early movies on a low budget. The martial arts wasn’t in the script either, he just saw the child actor showing off his moves between takes and was like “Fuck yeah, Bro” and integrated it on the fly. Eli Roth is all like “Nah, fuck that, Bro”, this kid is gonna run over screaming about pancakes. When our gang returns to the store later, Dennis could have snuck up and just bitten the infected character, making a little jump scare out of it or something. The pancake kid, Dennis, was already set up as a biter in the first act. Maybe we should give the film and Roth credit for that at least it’s not cookie-cutter. Recall pancakes… When you mix it all together, it’s a very strange product indeed and I’m not quite sure how it sits with me. Recall the racist storeowner but it turns out to not be at all what it seems. Recall the scene where the kid with the harmonica takes a hit and swallows the instrument. Having seen his later films, I’d say it’s a bit of both if these characters were real, they could very well say such dross.Īnd finally, on the complete other end of the scale, Cabin Fever also bleeds into full-on parody, like it’s a Scary Movie spinoff in disguise. Cabin Fever has a very juvenile sense of humour which, depending on your opinion, is an accurate representation of college dickheads, or is just Roth himself having lowbrow taste. What doesn’t quite gel so well is when the humour exists in the realtime plot. There’s a silliness to the affair but it perfectly replicates the campy feeling of retold urban legends. Roth knows better, and splices in visual representations of the spoken tale, giving the scene a surreal energy that helps distance it from boring versions of this scenario we’ve seen too many times before. In the hands of a lazier filmmaker, the scene would just consist of the kids around the fire. There’s the contractually obligated scene of the teens hanging out around the campfire reciting urban legends. Then, there’s some some wry stylings by Roth that inject some humour into the film, if that’s the correct word. Connections between this killer virus and STDs are alluded to, but unlike gonorrhoea, it never goes much deeper than the skin. There even seems to be some attempt at social commentary or allegory regarding horror’s favourite couple sex and death. Much of the gore is handled quite straight, stewing in the very genuine horror of the situation. It sets up the expectations regarding the onscreen decay that will be thrust your way, but also sets up a grim tone. It is simplicity at its finest, as the image slowly rots before your eyes, and the audio gradually turns sicker and more intense. At times, it feels like an attempt at a straight-and-narrow horror flick. Tonally, Cabin Fever is as big a mess as what was left in that bathtub. So, the Seinfeld effect is in full… effect here, but Cabin Fever still manages to stand out, due to that very Eli Roth voice that the critics of yesteryear alluded to. 20 years on, a slew of other horror-comedies in this setting were released, that lovingly rib at horror films and make references to previous horror hallmarks Tucker and Dale, Cabin in the Woods, The Final Girls, et cetera et cetera. Yum.Įli Roth was hailed as an exciting new voice for the genre, with Cabin Fever heralded as a breath of fresh air. To cut a 90 minute story short, the hermit catches the infection and spreads it to the gang, after a violent encounter results in his carcass draining into the local water supply. Your horror movie bingo card is getting filled up at record speed campfire horror stories, horny teen romps, skinny dipping, hunting gone wrong. After getting into trouble with some roadside rednecks and their bitey-bitey son, they reach their destination a nice secluded cabin. On the other side of the woods, five friends are arriving for a nice getaway among the trees after finishing college. Sadly, the dog has been taken ill, seriously ill. But, which is the best?Ĭabin Fever begins with a crazy old hermit who’s been out catching rabbits for his dog. The other was an experiment of sorts a remake released less than 15 years after the original which uses the very same script but was brought to life by a different filmmaking team. One of these films was an unexpected low-budget hit and introduced Eli Roth as one of the first rising figures in 21st century horror.
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