Cabin Fever (2002) Reviews

• I Honestly think the Hype Killed this Film.

  sunset-at-night2005-10-18

  Before Cabin Fever came out.. the word in the horror world was that Cabin Fever is one of the most gruesome, bloodiest, scariest, funniest, craziest horror movie ever. So when it opened in theaters, everyone's expectation was sky high ..even mine. Yes, I was kind of disappointed with Cabin Fever because it was hyped so much. I mean you had Peter Jackson the director of Lord of the Rings saying in the trailer this is one of best horror movie he's ever seen. Now if I did not go in with such huge expectations, I could had enjoyed it for what it was. I really started enjoying Cabin Fever once it started playing on cable. Every time it comes on I watch it and I begin to love this film a lot more. Cabin Fever is directed by up and comer Eli Roth. He's a guy that loves horror films and mentioned in several articles this movie pay homage to his favorites like Evil Dead. Cabin Fever is about 5 college kids who had just finish test finals and are enjoying some relaxation and fun in a cabin in the woods but the fun is cut short when they learn a flesh eating bacteria disease is around. The main character Paul is played by Boy Meets World actor Rider Strong. Rider was surprisingly good in this movie and Paul is the character you root for the most to not get the disease. The movie is funny. The funniest movie ever? Hell no! This movie is scary. The scariest movie ever? Hell no! This movie is bloody. The bloodiest? Hell no! So I'm finally enjoying the movie for what it's worth and it is and has a potential to end up being a horror movie classic. There are tons of films that people hated when it first came out and then come to love it semi years later. Cabin Fever I believe is one of them.

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• An unfairly judged cult flick

  ReelSplatter2005-10-14

  This film has been unfairly judged! It is in fact a very good 80's style, Splatter, B-movie. It shys away from the self referencing humor plague that Scream started and succeeds in being a very strange splatter/comedy. Several reviews have been posted that say the characters are unlikable and do illogical things through the course of the movie. The characters are very good representations of the youth of the late 90's. The hunting squirrels joke is a perfect example. When asked why he is hunting the squirrels, the character replies, "Cause their gay". How many times have you heard a teen respond to a question in such a manner? Eli Roth has captured very well the essence of of being a teenager in this very cynical society.The actions the characters take are, in context, very believable. Ask yourself, if you were in a situation where you had to deal with the very likely possibility of becoming infected with a horrible flesh-eating disease, would you be the first to lend a helping hand to the infected? Another thing that has been trashed by many reviews is the strange sense of humor the film has. The pancakes scene in particular. The humor in the film is the strange sort you would more likely find in a Troma film (not the sex/toilet variety, though)While it's not for everyone, the sense of fun the movie has about itself is more suited to hardcore B-movie fans than mainstream audiences. Eli Roth hearkens back to a time when movies weren't always about psychological thrills,bad twist endings, and pretentious artistic "meanings", when they were about fun. It's a great movie to sit around with some friends and watch. So please, don't judge it so harshly, just because it's a movie to be taken straight with no shocking hidden meanings or twists. Hopefully this film will find it's audience with the cult movie crowd. Highly recommended to anyone with a love of B-Movie cinema.

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• What's up with this movie?

  Sizzle0072003-09-22

  I wasted 5.75 to see this crappy movie so I just want to know a few things: What was the point of the dog being split in half at the beginning of the movie, the disease had nothing to do with being split in half. What was the point of dragging Karen into the shed, she already totally infected her room, they could have just locked her in there where she would have been safer. Why would the Hermit be running around the forest asking strangers to help him when he could have just asked his relative, the hog lady, to take him to the hospital? Why didn't any of the characters bother to walk into town to get help when things started getting bad, are they all really that lazy? Even if Paul was threatened by the guy w/ the shotgun for peeping on his wife, Paul could have just sent Jeff or Bert back to the house to ask for help. the girl he loves is deteriorating. What was the point of the box? Why did Jeff go back to the cabin after he left when everyone else was getting infected, if he was that big of a jerk to leave in the first place wouldn't he have just gone back home? If the police went to all the trouble of gathering up the kids and burning them on the fire pit, why did they throw Paul halfway into the river, it wasn't even necessary for the plot because the water was already contaminated. Who makes lemonade out of river water, that crap has dirt leaves and bugs in it. Why couldn't the two kids have just use the tap water, it was contaminated too, so the stupid ending would still work.

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• This movie makes me want to puke and then puke again.

  Gums45882006-04-28

  When I saw the previews for this movie, I didn't expect much to begin with - around a second rate teen horror movie. But wow, this movie was absolutely awful. And that's being generous. First of all, the casting for the movie was terrible. You feel no sympathy (or for that matter any morbid feeling) for the characters. The acting was so terrible that I was just simply waiting and hoping for the God-awful thing to end. Secondly, there are points in the movie that had absolutely no relation to the plot whatsoever. Can somebody please explain to me why the girlish-looking boy starts screaming "PANCAKES!!!" at the top of his lungs while going into Jackie Chan moves I've never seen before, and even further biting the guy who has the virus? Why does the father of the kid proceed to get angry with the virus-infected guy, and go on a redneck hunting spree to find him? I was left with a feeling of such confusion and utter disbelief that I literally said out loud, "Where the hell did that come from?" I just simply couldn't believe what I had seen. I really thought I had seen some bad movies, but I have to say that Cabin Fever tops them all. This movie made me want to puke and then puke again. Then blow my brains out. Please, save yourself an hour and a half and do something more productive. Watching grass grow, perhaps, is a proper alternative.

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• Horrid *spoilers*

  starburstjellybabies2004-10-31

  I'd like to start this review off by noting I am a fan of horror, not only that, I am a fan of b grade horror also. I am therefore of sound mind and body when I pronounce this movie a pile of crap. As we all know, there's different types of good horror. There's bad acting+poor gore+boobs+ 80's=unintentional hilarity (eg: bloody pom poms) there's faux b grade indie low budget homage to the classics horror (eg. Undead, peter jacksons first movie). There's genuine comedy+gore (shaun of the dead, dawn of the dead) then there's trying to be indie, using the actor from Boy Meets World, bad script writing, poor direction, indecisive drivel. (that's Cabin Fever) I don't know, I should have known from the DVD cover of the 'forest scene/look closer and it's a spooky scull!! OooOOoO' that it was going to be rubbish. First off the hackneyed teen group is established (don't forget the horny couple) Neither the actors or the script give you any reason to get attached to the characters so prepare to not give a crap when they get infected with the mystery 'suddenly I'm projectile vomiting blood' virus What you can count on is dozens of unnecessary characters. Watch as they pointlessly drift in and out of the movie like so many dead fish in a pond (or a RESERVIOUR?! Oops, hope I didn't spoil anything original and clever. Groan.) As a side note on that, please note the dramatic music every time there is a shot of a glass of water, cup of tea, empty glass, someone sipping from a glass etc, just in case we didn't get it when we saw the dead body rotting in the river and the extended scene of the pipes going from said river to the cabin where our teens are staying and enjoying glasses of tap water. The mistake this movie made was trying to be horror quirky and actual horror, and failing miserably at both. Even the gore was overdone and uninspired. The quirk just wasn't happening, as it came in odd spots through the movie, usually in places where you were baffled by some random 'crazy local' character or script anomaly. Note: a random guy in a bunny suit isn't quirky. It serves only to suggest someone going mad, which opens up all these 'maybe its all just some psychological hallucination' questions. But no, its just some stupid goddamn guy in a bunny suit put there because they thought it would be CLEVER. So after trudging through an hour or so of infection spreading and vicious dog attacks, (blurry and in the background it looks more like a dog licking food off a mannequin) you're treated with the main character going on a random killing spree? For no apparent reason? Someone then forcibly swallows a harmonica, which is I guess..supposed to be funny. Except that its not too obvious he was playing a harmonica in the first place, or why he was still playing it minutes after being approached by a blood soaked Rider Strong plus harmonica swallowing seems to involve a spray of mouth blood a'la the viruses projectile blood vomiting, so it's all a little confusing. But it doesn't matter, by this time, you're just praying it ends soon. In heated conclusion, this movie is horrendous! Do yourself a favour and stay away, ignore anyone who says its 'kool d00d' Its not even so bad it's good. And if you didn't feel homicidal tendencies toward that Boy Meets World prat before seeing Cabin Fever, you certainly will now.

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