Stupidity is the only excuse for stupidity.
Eli Roth writes and directs a group of kids that you just cannot possibly cheer for or want to make it out alive. None of them really. Just the worst.
A group of five friends heads out into the woods for a week in an out-of-the-way cabin to hang out, have a few drinks and celebrate spring break. From the beginning of the trip things are already weird. One of the group, Paul, is bitten on the hand by a strange boy at the local convenience store. Upon arriving at the cabin, Bert says he is going squirrel hunting. He leaves the rest to unpack while he takes a beer and a rifle into the woods. Bert shoots what he thought was a squirrel or some animal, but it turns out to be the hermit that lives in the woods. The man looks pretty rough and asks Bert if he can help him out. Bert freaks out and threatens him to not come any closer. As the hermit approaches him, Bert fires a shot that strikes the man and he goes down. Freaked out by all of this Bert runs back to the cabin, but never mentions what has happened.
The group of friends celebrates around a campfire with a few beers, telling stories and joking. It’s all fun and games until they go back into the house and there is a mysterious knock on the door. It’s the hermit looking for help, again. He recognizes Bert and (rightfully so) flies off the handle. He gets into their truck and begins to drive away. More yelling, more threats and the hermit throws up blood all over the truck. He is then lit on fire and runs screaming into the woods. Freaked out by everything, Karen goes back into the house to have a mug of warm tea and go to bed.
Cabin Fever has long been a movie that I have wanted to see, and one that I felt like I needed to see, and this was finally the year that I sat down and made myself watch it. Sadly, it was not what I was expecting and thus didn’t live up to the hype I had built up in my head. Is it a bad movie? Probably not. It’s a film that modernizes all of the tropes from horror movies from the 70s. There’s mystery, violence, gore, and the feeling that it’s never going to turn out well for the on-screen characters. In this respect, it does all these things as expected. I think I was just expecting more from an Eli Roth movie.
I’ve never been a big fan of the torture porn style of horror movies, honestly. I’m much happier with letting my imagination build up things and not showing the most absolute over-the-top gore allowed on screen. I think Cabin Fever falls somewhere in the middle and doesn’t commit enough to either. This is totally a “your mileage may vary” kind of movie for me. I am sure and am pretty positive that a lot of folks love this movie… or hate it. For me, it’s just the middle of the road. Maybe I just couldn’t get past Shawn from Boy Meets World being in a horror film…
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