Preview
CABIN FEVER
Starring Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd and Joey Kern
Directed by Eli Roth
Opens Friday, September 12
Check Listings
If you took the remote cabin from The Evil Dead, the blood puking from 28 Days Later and the creepy low-budget backwoods feel of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and combined them with a sense of humour that celebrates the tasteless, you have some idea of what Cabin Fever is all about.
A group of five friends head out to the woods for a weekend of booze, sex and relaxation. What they get is exposure to a bloody flesh-eating disease that infects them one by one and dissolves the group dynamic about as fast as it does their skin.
While Cabin Fever isn’t a politically charged exploration of human nature like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or as over-the-top gory as Dead Alive, the movie will undoubtedly appeal to fans of both. Critics can analyze "the evil among us" and "segregation of the other" thematics of the film, while blood hounds will revel in dissolving human skin and ball peen hammers to the back of the head.
Ultimately, Cabin Fever is a tried and true horror formula picture, and there is nothing wrong with that. The film subscribes to almost all the clichés in the genre but director Eli Roth counteracts that by referencing every film in the genre to prove that he knows his roots. Psycho, Cujo, The Shining, and more all get the nod. Then, as if to prove that Cabin Fever isn’t just a straight up rip off the audience is introduced to a feral kid, prone to biting, who partakes in slow-mo kung-fu while screaming "Pancakes!" Now that’s good cinema
It’s rumoured that Roth apprenticed under master of the surreal David Lynch, and it shows. The importance of sound design and dream sequences that run film backwards are trademark Lynch, but Roth puts the same techniques to good use. Roth also appropriates Lynch’s blend of gore and camp and that is what makes Cabin Fever so appealing.
If we have to live through another teen movie resurgence – which is likely after the success of Freddy vs. Jason – then my hope is that instead of more Scream rip-offs, we get films like Cabin Fever, that go back to the ’80s and exploit what was already pretty exploitative. It may not be any more original, but it is a lot more fun. |
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