It’s got a little bit of everything for everybody. Veteran horror fans can amuse themselves picking out the numerous shout-outs and homages. Like Dawn of the Dead, Cabin Fever is a hearty mix of satirical and absurdist humor, plus well-timed jump scares and convincing gore. The above quote is Ebert reviewing the 1978 George Romero version of Dawn of the Dead, but it’s a good mantra to keep in mind when reviewing horror movies in general. “Nobody ever said art had to be in good taste.” - Roger Ebert Say what you will about Eli Roth, he knows his audience and he’s the right director for his time. These have been memed to death on the Internet, which is probably what they were designed to do. In between are such memorable comic relief characters as the pancakes kid and the party cop. Not only does the virus liquefy people eventually, but the special effects show its work on human and animal alike at every possible gloppy, gloopy stage of it. Perhaps the illness clouds human judgment, as it does a random local dog who begins attacking everyone after it’s infected.Įven though the movie has its own bonkers logic - the flesh-eating virus acts like a bacterium but is called a virus, mixing up its pathogen labels - it follows through with a giddy mix of cheesy humor and beefy gore. None of the cast demonstrates the sense God gave a potato, save Jeff, who takes his beer and nopes into the deep woods. Following typical horror canon, the teens might as well have numbers branded on their foreheads to show which order they’ll be picked off. Karen is the first to get infected, but one by one the others follow. The hermit later causes calamity for the group between being on fire and trying to steal their car. They get accosted by a wilderness hermit who’s clearly sick with something and begs for help, but Bert promptly shoots him, casting the original sin that will funkify the group’s karma. Jeff, Marcy, Paul, Karen and Bert are college students out on Spring Break, an annual holiday which is developing a heck of a body count over the years, and head for a lone cabin in the woods. To a certain segment of the horror audience, Eli “Bear Jew” Roth can do no harm. Roth’s fandom, splashing back from later flicks like the Hostel series, encases this movie in critic-proof armor. It also happens to be the debut of - let’s get it out of your system now - Eli Roth, who also wrote the script and even plays a bit role. Give Cabin Fever this much, it does exactly what it sets out to do, and never for a minute pretends to be anything else. Then again, if the people behind this movie were that shy about shopworn horror tropes, it wouldn’t have been made. Oops, almost forgot, The Cabin in the Woods. It kinda reminds you of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, one or another sequel of Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, Antichrist, and even The Blair Witch Project in that teenagers head into the woods but chance upon the cabin later. Oh, you have? That’s right, this plot sounds awfully familiar. Stop us if you’re heard this before: A group of teenagers get together for a fun party weekend at a cabin in the woods.
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