Cabin Fever Year: 2002 Director: Eli Roth Written by: Eli Roth Threat: Disease Weapon of Choice: Rifle Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

Rish's Reviews
I missed this one in the theaters. Actually, everyone I knew did too. But I wish I hadn't; it would've been fun to see with a crowd. It wasn't a great movie, but it sure was cool.
So, two girls and three guys go up to a secluded cabin for the weekend. On the positive side, two of the guys get to have sex with the world's hottest chick. On the negative side, there's a horrible flesh-eating virus going around in the woods, and it spreads from one victim to another in no time. Me? I'd have to weigh both sides carefully on this one.
Reminding me a bit of the recent Wrong Turn and House of 1000 Corpses, this felt like a throwback to the gritty 70's woods slashers. Also like those two films, the characters were likable, basically decent people who you'd rather not see die horrible, suffering deaths.
But they do.
I found myself liking this one, and director Eli Roth, in spite of myself. There were some clever winks and nods to previous films (The Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead come to mind), and with one exception, they never took away from the film, like some flicks in the past have (The Dead Hate the Living!, for example). There are a couple of moments that don't work, but they're far outweighed by what does. KNB did the effects, and they range from unsettling to downright revolting. Beyond the 70's look and feel, there were 70's sensibilities too, with beer, drugs, and sex being big priorities. Some of the humor didn't work, but the dialogue was usually pretty strong. There was one moment with a twisted campfire horror story-within-the-story that actually achieved brilliance. I've never felt that stoners are funny, but I'm in the minority. The IMDB claims the flick made a bundle, and it was the hit of the Toronto Film Festival, so I guess it has its audience.
The cast was good. Rider Strong, as the well-intentioned, logical, nice guy role, was believable and pretty darn sympathetic. Daughter of super-hot "Charlie's Angel" Cheryl Ladd, Jordan Ladd was tiny and cute (and she pretty much gets it the worst), even though her character was the kind of tease we all knew growing up (or know now). James DeBello as the dude with the hat was funny. The biggest thing I came away with from this one was, Cerina Vincent has to be one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen in my life. Holy crap. I saw it with my two traditional Wednesday night film buddies, and all of us were freaking out over how hot she was.
Here's the rub, though, kids: my Irish friend absolutely hated the movie. I didn't. My other pal (who will, from this point on, be referred to as "my bald friend") also liked it. But my Irish friend couldn't get his mind around that. He got angry and demanded to know what was so great about it, then he wouldn't accept our opinions as valid. In fact, I felt that he sort of hated the two of us because we liked it so much. We had to leave before we could talk about the moments we most liked, and he hasn't spoken to us since. But ah well, I have a friend who liked Home Fries (and it was utter shite), and somehow, we remained friends.
I nearly put "contagion" as the Threat, but I'm glad I didn't. There's enough pretentious bastards out there. A disease is a disease.
I wasn't going to give this film a What the Hell? Skull, since they're invariably negative (basically, if something just comes out of nowhere, makes no sense, or is extraordinarily stupid, there's your What the Hell?), but there was one moment where a savage little blond kid starts doing kung fu moves in slow-motion, forcing at least one of us to actually say, "What the hell?" So there you go.
Best Scare: Two moments made me freak out. One was when a character falls onto a rotting, disease ridden dead body (all three of us were shrieking). The other was when a victim, who we believed to be sleeping, was revealed to be horribly (HORRIBLY) mutilated. Good stuff.
I'd Recommend It To: Cabin Fever's not gonna be for everybody. I wouldn't tell my mom to check it out. Some people will be put off because there's not a stalking, physical killer. But I think most real Horror fans will be pleased with it. Unless you're Irish, I guess.

The tyranist's thoughts
I rented this one on Rish's recommendation. Hey, we've got to stick together and when one of us sees a good horror movie, we generally tell each other immediately. Especially since it happens so often.
Unfortunately, I watched this one alone (as I do most horror movies) and didn't benefit from some of the group empathy Rish obviously had. The end result is that I thought the movie was mediocre at best and 'cute' at worst.
First, I didn't find the characters terribly sympathetic. In fact, other than Rider Strong and Jordan Ladd's characters, I could have managed without the rest of them. I have to wonder if it was just that they were too formulaic and stereotypical or if they simply were the kind of people I could never like and/or feel any kind of sympathy for. Actually, if you ask Rish, he'll tell you that the number of people I'm capable of feeling sympathy for is staggeringly small. And maybe that explains a lot of things.
The homages to other horror movies were nicely woven in. In particular, I really liked the moment that paid tribute to Night of the Living Dead. Other than these moments, though, I thought the movie was poorly paced and often dragging. Strange that a 90 minute film can drag, but I see a lot of movies that do.
Now that I'm thinking about it, though, I can remember at least one moment of true emotion. That was nice. Too bad it was an isolated scene that I probably injected more emotion into than was actually there.
Last, I guess the threat of the disease just didn't scare me much. Of course, I'm not the kind of person that is frightened of that sort of thing. I've never been a germ freak and am unlikely to become one soon.
So, while this wasn't the worst film I've seen this month, it wasn't really all that great. I'm not Irish, and I don't hate Rish for liking it. In fact, I'm happy for him. He seems to like far fewer movies than I do. Perhaps, I'm just not in the demographic for it, or perhaps it can't be enjoyed alone. I suppose you have to choose whom you trust and then see it for yourself.

Total Skulls: 17

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?