MOVIE REVIEW

Cabin Fever  (2003)

Starring: Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong, James DeBello
Director: Eli Roth

Rating: R

Studio: Lions Gate Films

Release Date: 9.12.03

Review Posted: 8.14.03

Spoilers: Very Minor

By Jon Bjorling

"Cabin Fever" a Frightening, Darkly Comic Tale

The teaser trailer for Cabin Fever is totally misleading. From the preview one would walk into this film thinking that they are about to see either a supernatural horror flick in the vein of Evil Dead, or a Friday the 13th style slasher pic featuring a killer in a bunny costume—at least, that's one of the impressions I got when I saw the teaser. Cabin Fever is none of these things. It's the story of how friendship disintegrates when the situation becomes survival of the fittest.

The story goes like this: Five college friends rent a cabin in the woods to escape the pressures of college life. Once there, they engage in the usual teen/college horror film activities - drink, smoke pot, and get laid. However, one to the friends, while messing around in the woods, comes across a man who is bleeding and seems to be suffering from a strange illness. In fear, he runs off, leaving the diseased man to die. Later that night, the man finds his way to the cabin, and after spitting blood all over their truck, he is chased off into the woods. Shortly there after one person of the group contracts a disease, a disease that is eating the friend alive.

The film looks great. Many indie horror films (even some of the most popular ones) look like crap. However, Director Eli Roth and DP Scott Kevan made the best looking film that they could together for a very low budget. The music by Nathan Barr is really nice and also contains a few snippets of the great Angelo Badalamenti. The make up effects by KNB are excellent. Production-wise, this is a pretty solid film.

The one thing I had a problem with were the characters themselves. It was hard to like the characters because most of them were total assholes. These are people that have no compassion for a person (friend or not) who is suffering. What happens when the first of the friends contracts the disease—they lock the friend in a shed. Very compassionate, isn’t it.

Overall, Cabin Fever has the potential to do well when it's finally released. It's the sort of film that you want to get your friends together with, get some drinks, and have fun with it. The film takes elements from Evil Dead 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and other influential horror films of the past and weaves a frightening and darkly comic tale.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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