MovieFreak.com - "Cabin Fever" DVD Review by Dennis Landmann

Starring: Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, Joey Kern, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent

A group of young adults vacationing for the weekend at a cabin are trapped in the woods and methodically killed off by a horrifying flesh-eating virus.

Like Jeepers Creepers, the first 30 minutes of Cabin Fever are quite intriguing. The viewers get to know the characters bit by bit, and the suspense builds slowly. In this case, the five characters are finally done with school and decide to spend a weekend at a rented cabin in the woods. Director Eli Roth slowly builds suspense by moving the camera certain ways, focusing on specific things, and giving the woods an eerie personality. He injects the film with enough jolts and jumps to get the viewer's blood pumping. It seems Roth is fond of gore and blood as there is plenty of both in this film.

In addition, each death in this film is inventive, but the most "fucked up" death, one that involves guns and not the disease, happens at the very end. Adding to the film's suspenseful mood is Nathan Barr's haunting score. I recognized a few specific and familiar sounds in the score, and it's interesting to note Angelo Badalamenti is listed as a composer next to Barr on the IMDB.

My main complaint about the film is that after the first 30 minutes the story just seems to go on and on until the first sight of the disease, which doesn't arrive until 50 minutes into the show. This brings me to the script. It appears to lose focus in the middle act. Roth and co-writer Randy Pearlstein fail to include substantial actions that could possibly excite the viewer. Instead, Roth relies on the gore. This tactic works to good effect a few times, but that's it. Roth is also pretty unclear when it comes to the film's ending. I kind of understand it, and it leaves room for a sequel, but the change in tone is very drastic and just doesn't work. The ending also seems like it's the beginning of something new, but then the film just ends. What's up with that, Mr. Roth?

Moreover, the story calls for a certain sense of hysteria, and it appears occasionally, especially when the characters become scared when they realize the effects and origin of the deadly disease. For most of the time the characters really don't do a whole lot of interesting things, except when two of them are having good (and painful) sex. The suspense is building too slowly, and some passages of the story seem like they're only there to kill some time. Most indicative of that are scenes with one or two characters running off into the woods, be it searching for one another, or finding help. So, yeah, Cabin Fever moves pretty slowly.

Some of the acting is quite good, especially Rider Strong and Joey Kern. Their characters seem most important to the story, but the other three seem kind of expendable. The other supporting characters, mainly the strange people from the grocery store, are completely weak. Another character, Deputy Wilson (Giuseppe Andrews), is pretty odd as he only thinks "party party party". As a director, Roth does a fairly good job, but as a writer he needs to improve on making story elements substantial and giving his characters interesting things to to that also advance the plot. As it stands, Cabin Fever is an enjoyable B-horror movie with great amounts of blood and gore, yet it fails to make an honest impression by lacking substantial plot elements and characters worth following.

Lions Gate Films presents Cabin Fever in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are bright and well-saturated. Print image quality is just fine, and there are only very few areas of grain. Black levels and dark tones are usually solid. This is a generally pretty good-looking transfer with only a few concerns, which include edge enhancement and compression artifacts in a few spots.

Lions Gate Films presents Cabin Fever in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Despite not being aggressive, this soundtrack sounds pretty good. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand, and the music score sounds just terrific; loud and crisp. Surrounds are active during specific scenes, and ambience appears occasionally. Sound effects are audible through the rear speakers most of the time. In effect, a pretty nice presentation that gets the job done.

The main menu load-up is kind of neat, but it takes a tad bit too long to actually load.

Starting things off in the set up menu are five(!) audio commentaries, which I think is overkill, but anyway. Track 1 is with director Eli Roth, track 2 with the guys, track 3 with the girls, track 4 with the filmmakers, and track 5 with Rider Strong, doing a solo commentary "because he talked so damn much," according to the menu. Anyway, I didn't waste 5-6 hours listening to each track individually, so while watching the film I switched back and forth a few times. My general impression was that the people talk for most of the duration, pausing only several times. Their comments ranged from a simple overview and insightful trivia from the production. On the whole, however, I just don't think this film required five tracks. Two would have sufficed, especially with a good editing job.

Select the special features menu and it prompts you to view the Family Version. This is a brief reel, about a minute and thirty seconds, with general shots edited to a happy song. In short, expendable. Chick Vision is a pretty pointless feature; during some of the scarier moments in the film two hands will come up and cover your screen. Like I said, pretty pointless. Next is The Rotten Fruit, a kind of funny and well-made program from Roth and his friend. It concerns a music band made up of a variety of fruit, like a banana and an orange, who engage in odd but funny behavior. Three segments are featured here, and more can be viewed at a specific website. Beneath the Skin is the film's making-of documentary. It does a decent job, featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Lastly, you'll find something called Pancakes, which is seriously pointless unless you care to view more karate-like moves from that strange Dennis character in the film.

You can select to view the film with optional English and Spanish subtitles. The 98-minute feature is organized into twenty-seven chapters.

Cabin Fever has the blood and gore to please any avid horror fan, but anyone looking for something a substantial story will get lost in the script's lack of focus. Also, the film displayed some good potential, but something is missing. Video/audio is just fine. At first glance the extras seem big, but they're only alright. Five commentaries is overkill, and really the only noteworthy extra is the making-of. Rent it.

THE MOVIE	5
THE VIDEO	8
THE AUDIO	8
THE EXTRAS	6
OVERALL (not an average)	6