Previously posted on blog and written by B. Demeter
Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014) is a dumb movie with some really good gore effects; but I suppose that is all it ever really wanted to be.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the original Cabin Fever that I’m essentially going into this movie with a blank slate. Which is good because the internet tells me this is supposed to be a prequel.
The film opens up with the tail end of a prior infection, the sole survivor of which is Sean Astin with a beard. Apparently Sean Astin with a beard is some how naturally immune to whatever this deadly disease is. Sean Astin with a beard is then locked away on an island laboratory while scientists work on a cure for the disease.
Then we meet a bunch of beautiful young people who are all eventually going to die over the next 60 minutes of this film. The group, three dudes and a chick, are all long time friends who are getting together to celebrate one of the guys pending nuptials. They head out to a deserted island for reasons; but it turns out the island they’re on is the island laboratory the Sean Astin with a beard was shipped off to.
Shit goes wrong, everyone but Sean Astin dies. All right, now on to the good stuff.
The gore effects in this were pretty memorable. The disease gets almost everyone in the movie. It starts off with a little skin rash, blisters, and boils. Eventually the infected are having their skin peel off and melt away. It’s all top notch.
Perhaps it is the current real world biological scares that are going on around us, but this movie has stuck in my head. Just thinking about these people wasting away with no cure in sight was disturbing. Now, I don’t really believe that any disease will cause my lips to rot off or my flesh to liquefy but it doesn’t take much for my imagination to take off down the road of the absurd. Whenever I hear the world ‘ebola’ I think of the scene in this movie where the person is throwing up their internal organs.
Speaking of absurd, this movie’s ending is just that. They try to go the Usual Suspects route and have a dramatic turn where Sean Astin with a beard tricked everyone. I didn’t really care at that point. Plot wasn’t really important in this movie but I guess they needed to end it somehow. For anyone who cares, Sean Astin and his beard were putting his blood on mice and then the mice infected the people in the laboratory, killing them all. Then Sean & beard puts more blood in the remaining two victims bottled water before jumping ship, literally.
Ultimately this movie is forgettable. At best it will be random movie trivia for movies that Sean “Rudy” Astin has been in. Probably, the only effect I will remember a year from now is the girl breaking her arms off during a fight scene.
Four stars.
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