Cabin Fever is a 2002 Tonic Films & Black Sky Entertainment horror film. Written by Eli Roth and Randy Pearlstein, directed by Eli Roth, and starring Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Cerina Vicent, and Joey Kern. This is Eli Roth’s directorial debut film, and he would go on to direct a number of films within the horror genre in the next 20 plus years, the most recent being Thanksgiving last November which I covered on this page then. I am an Eli Roth fan, I enjoy his horror movies and his TV show on Shudder, ‘Eli Roth’s History of Horror’ shows you how much of a true horror nerd he is and how much appreciation he really has for the genre that many of us weirdos and outsiders hold so near and dear. His films may be controversial and divisive for many of the genre’s fans, but I have always liked Eli Roth as a director, not just for him being my namesake within horror, but for his clear homages to other films in the genre that came before him while still creating his own fresh stories to add to the legacy of horror itself along the way. This film follows 5 young adults heading to a rented cabin in the woods to celebrate a break from college, pretty generic setup that we’ve seen utilized many of times in past films, only this time it’s not a masked killer creating the tension and presence of death within the story, it’s a flesh-eating virus that seems to be taking them all quickly. I really enjoyed the concept of making a virus the big bad of the movie, its fresh and it also creates a whole new kind of tension and fear to the story because a virus isn’t something that you can get your hands on and kill, it’s in the air and the water, and it turns best friends and lovers on one another in hopes to save themselves.
In typical Eli Roth fashion as well the majority of the cast of kids here weren’t necessarily likeable or the easiest to cheer for, but the tension of the story and the way things were playing out was enough to keep me fully invested and feel a genuine sense of worry for the characters. Roth seems to also create his own kind of vibe to his stories, there’s a level of real tension and fear mixed with sequences of at times grotesque brutality, while tossing in moments of dumb humor and absolute goofball idiot characters to lighten the mood I suppose, I can see why that wouldn’t be everyone’s bag, but I enjoy that hard shift and different tones mixing, and it gives his movies their own kinda vibe and thing. This movie had the locals that were just strange goofy weirdos that broke up the tension here, notably the deputy and the old man that ran the general store. Seeing as this was his first film and certainly the lowest budget he worked with, I don’t think the gore was necessarily as graphic as some of the other Eli Roth work has been, but that isn’t to say there wasn’t any cringeworthy moments to write home about, particularly the leg shaving scene and that’s all I’ll say. Notably, Greg Nicotero along with a small team of Alan Tuskes and Garrett Immel were responsible for the practical effects and when the moments called for it to visually show the flesh-eating virus taking over someone’s body, they delivered with some pretty believably nasty flesh wounds and boils.
If I had to think of something to complain about here or critique, as you do when you review a movie, none of the guys in this group were necessarily likeable and there was nothing really noteworthy about the girls to latch onto either. The characters didn’t have much depth to them, but they didn’t need to either necessarily to fulfill their purpose as characters in this particular story being told. That in itself is a classic trope of horror that Eli Roth plays into very commonly, the group of kids we spend time within the movies have no real depth or development to them and are more often than not more unlikeable than likeable and placed where they are simply to be victims to our big evil in the movie, whatever that may be. Roth himself had a small cameo role in the movie as a goofy fellow camper that stumbled upon the kid’s bonfire in the woods with a big bag of weed as a hospitable offering gift. I can see how this wouldn’t be everyone’s bag, like most of his films, it’s a body horror/isolation horror film and isn’t thoroughly dense or much of a thinker of a movie. This movie does succeed for me though, the tension worked and kept me thoroughly invested throughout, the body horror was believably cringeworthy, the clear feelings and homages to films like The Evil Dead and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were cool and welcome, and the ultimate reveal when one of the characters discovers the catalyst to what started getting them all sick to begin with is really well done in my mind. Everyone has their own opinion though and that’s the wonderful thing about entertainment, so give it a watch if you haven’t seen it or haven’t seen it in a while and let me know what you think. Available now on Max with a subscription or to rent through Amazon Prime.
