Cabin Fever (2002)
Cabin Fever (2002)
Eli Roth's 2002 directorial debut Cabin Fever is a bloody disgusting horror comedy about a group of college graduates who set off to a remote cabin in the woods to celebrate their being finally done with college, but soon after arriving the kids start coming down with a flesh eating virus. The film was directed and co-written by Eli Roth, the screenplay was also co-written by Randy Pearlstein. Cabin Fever was distributed by Lionsgate and Black Sky Entertainment, and was quite successful in the box office bringing in $30.6 million against its $1.5 million budget. Though critically the film was met with mixed reviews.
Cabin Fever stars Rider Strong as Paul, Jordan Ladd as Karen, James DeBello as Bert, Cerina Vincent as Marcy, Joey Kern as Jeff, Arie Verveen as Henry the hermit, Giuseppe Andrews as Deputy Winston, and Eli Roth as Justin/Grimm. The cast of this film are great at playing characters that are easy to despise and root against. I don't think it is a case of bad acting, I think it is a case of the acting being so great at playing these terrible people that it is easy to hate them, and wish for their bloody gory deaths. I think Karen played by Jordan Ladd is the one decent person out of the whole lot, and seeing what happened to her was probably the saddest part of the film, but to see what happens to her "friends" is like this cathartic reward for having to suffer their existence.
This is a film that really works on multiple levels, first of all on the visceral level, this is a film full of great and disgusting gore and grotesque effects, and for that alone I absolutely love this film, and I feel like the tone of this film worked far better than Eli Roth's other works like Hostel. Also this film is part parody and part homage to horror gore and exploitation classics like Last House On The Left, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Evil Dead. Though the film walks the tightrope between homage and rip-off, I feel that ultimately the film works. The film is also quite effective as an intentional comedy, sometimes sacrificing actual scares for a gross-out comedic gag. This could work against it, but I think that in this film that it actually pays off and works.
I would not go so far as to say that this is a great film, but it is an effective horror comedy film. The characters are all stereotypes, the sets and the tropes are all horror film tropes, and again though this could easily work against the film, I feel like in the case of Cabin Fever that it actually works. This film is funny and revolting all at once and I feel like that is a compliment, because I feel like that was what Eli Roth was going for, and if it is, well he hit it 100%. This isn't a film for everyone, but it is one that is definitely worth checking out. If you like your comedic horror films to be bloody disgusting, with some cheesy sex scenes (one of which was well, interesting, and the scene where the "nice" guy of the friend group tries to sexually assault his friend in her sleep the result is absolutely disgusting and his character totally deserves it), and absolutely annoying young adult characters, then this is the film for you. It is worth checking out, not great, but great fun nonetheless.
Cabin Fever stars Rider Strong as Paul, Jordan Ladd as Karen, James DeBello as Bert, Cerina Vincent as Marcy, Joey Kern as Jeff, Arie Verveen as Henry the hermit, Giuseppe Andrews as Deputy Winston, and Eli Roth as Justin/Grimm. The cast of this film are great at playing characters that are easy to despise and root against. I don't think it is a case of bad acting, I think it is a case of the acting being so great at playing these terrible people that it is easy to hate them, and wish for their bloody gory deaths. I think Karen played by Jordan Ladd is the one decent person out of the whole lot, and seeing what happened to her was probably the saddest part of the film, but to see what happens to her "friends" is like this cathartic reward for having to suffer their existence.
This is a film that really works on multiple levels, first of all on the visceral level, this is a film full of great and disgusting gore and grotesque effects, and for that alone I absolutely love this film, and I feel like the tone of this film worked far better than Eli Roth's other works like Hostel. Also this film is part parody and part homage to horror gore and exploitation classics like Last House On The Left, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Evil Dead. Though the film walks the tightrope between homage and rip-off, I feel that ultimately the film works. The film is also quite effective as an intentional comedy, sometimes sacrificing actual scares for a gross-out comedic gag. This could work against it, but I think that in this film that it actually pays off and works.
I would not go so far as to say that this is a great film, but it is an effective horror comedy film. The characters are all stereotypes, the sets and the tropes are all horror film tropes, and again though this could easily work against the film, I feel like in the case of Cabin Fever that it actually works. This film is funny and revolting all at once and I feel like that is a compliment, because I feel like that was what Eli Roth was going for, and if it is, well he hit it 100%. This isn't a film for everyone, but it is one that is definitely worth checking out. If you like your comedic horror films to be bloody disgusting, with some cheesy sex scenes (one of which was well, interesting, and the scene where the "nice" guy of the friend group tries to sexually assault his friend in her sleep the result is absolutely disgusting and his character totally deserves it), and absolutely annoying young adult characters, then this is the film for you. It is worth checking out, not great, but great fun nonetheless.
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