Amazon.com A sneaky and surprisingly smart horror flick, Cabin Fever sets up all the cliches of its particular subgenre (what might be called the "sexy young people go into the woods" horror movie, featuring hostile redneck locals, dead animals on hooks, cars that suddenly stop running, etc.) and by the end has played a clever twist on every standard element, often to darkly comic effect. What's the plot? Well, five sexy young people (Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, Joey Kern, Cerina Vincent, and James DeBello) go to an isolated cabin where they contract a nasty bacteria that eats their flesh; this, combined with a bad-tempered dog and a party-loving police deputy (Giuseppe Andrews, giving a particularly funny performance), leads everyone into confusion and bloody chaos. Some of the ironic twists are a little obvious, but most of them effectively subvert your expectations to entertaining effect. --Bret Fetzer
pretty well done.
i was supprise to see all the bad reviews. i happened to enjoy this movie. the story is about a group of teens that decide to rent a cabin in the woods. they get there only to find theve been exposed to a nasty little skin virus. this movie has just the right about of gore and funny one liners to make it worth watching at least once. my favorite charecter.. the ranger/rent a cop kid who keeps saying " do you EVEN realize how many amazing parties we're gonna have man?" haha classic!
Well...least it was better than Hostel
Cabin Fever has a weirdly unique place in the recent horror movies in that it's not completely part of that "torture porn" crop of movies that focus mainly on disgusting audiences than outright terrifying them. Cabin Fever on the other hand wants to be a horror film like seen a lot during the 70's. Problem is the film has an identity crisis in that it doesn't know what it wants to be. A funny horror movie? A scary comedy? Sometimes that dual personality works but here it feels too disjointed...plus it's kinda bad too.
Taking the familiar theme of a group of teenagers into the woods, you'd think some mask-toting killer with stalk ever so slowly after them right? Wrong. Turns out, the cool guy and the sex bomb, the awkward teen and the sweet chick and a lunkhead have to deal with a flesh-eating disease, a rabid dog and weird locals. You know, the usual.
That's pretty much the plot in a nutshell. Granted, it's nice to see a new killer wiping out the kiddies but even then, it's still a little thin. Not to mention these are some of the illogical choice-making kids ever and in the horror genre, that's seriously saying something. One character, the sweet guy, decides to fondle the object of his desires since grade 8...while she's sleeping. Yes, that's right, sleeping. And when said girl has to be sheltered off somewhere, he decides to have sex with the sex bomb. Figures he might as well get in some sex since he knows he's going to die anyway. Or maybe he's just dumb.
The disjointed feel comes in the way of humor adding in. There's the infamous "pancakes" scene that feels like it should be in a parody of bad kung fu movies then horror. Was it meant to lighten the tension? Or is it just simply trying to be a funny movie mixed in with the gore stuff to set it apart from serious ilk such as High Tension. Either make it a straight ahead horror comedy like Army of Darkness or go completely for the horror.
Like Hostel, the DVD is loaded with more commentaries than anything. And of course, writer/director Eli Roth is everywhere with a track by himself, with the girls, the guys, Rider Strong who's so gabby he needs his own track and a filmmaker commentary. But that don't mean anything if it's attached to a good movie and in this case, it's all for naught.
I don't know if a horror fan will completely love it. From Saw to Shining, Cabin Fever is just somewhere else. Don't mean unique means quality either.
Im Shocked
Not only with the movie itself, but with all these low reviews on it. Ive seen the movie quite a few times and its never failed to creep me out, or to entertain me. Ive always thought it to be one of the better horror films, especially with this new crap coming out. In my eyes this movie is 10x better than Hostel and many other horror films made around the last few years. It never trys to be a serious film and it never wants to be. Its a fun, thrill you, make you piss your pants type film. Just gory fun is the best way to describe it. This isnt the most graphic horror film Ive seen, but nevertheless it makes me feel sick everytime I watch it. To me the whole idea of just one little glass of water causing all this conflict is just scary because it feels like it could happen. Not to mention, I had a glass of water beside me during the whole film! Needless to say, I only took one little sip. I must be a coward, but the film can be very creepy. I really loved the effects in the film and the acting. Its just a fun horror flick. It succeeds as that very much. I enjoyed it a lot.
Not So Good
My viewing of Cabin Fever was inspired by Eli Roth's recent success with the Hostel franchise, and involvement in Grindhouse. I must, say that I was disappointed in Cabin Fever. The premise is good enough, but the inclusion of the townfolk, and the wild karate child are too much. With all that going on, the stoy is not developed enough. If they had only focused on the teens in the cabin, and their issues, it might have been a better movie.
Simply one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen...
...Definetley the grossest. So I guess that counts for something. This movie is truly disgusting. So if that's what you're into then you'll ptobably really like this movie. Other than the gross out factor there's really not much more to this movie. So there's really no need to spend anymore time on this review.