After the mind-numbing stupidity that was “Children of the Living Dead” (See last review) I couldn’t leave my weekend of horror limited to just that. So I threw on “Cabin Fever” to try and redeem proceedings.
I don’t rate Cabin Fever as Roth’s best work as a director. I have to say it’s quite enjoyable, and keeps you interested enough whilst still being simple enough you can watch it while you’re having a chat with friends or whatever.
THE PLOT
The plot revolves around the age-old cliché of the group of teenagers going out into the woods to party. They rent a cabin and the usual assortment of teenage hijinx ensures. Whilst partying and the usual stuff one of the teens accidentally shoots a local who is infected with a strange disease that is rotting his flesh away. The infected local tries to get help from the teenagers but understandably they don’t want anything to do with him. Like any good disease, it is highly contagious. The carrier is highly persistent in his endeavors to get back at the teenagers. The teenagers have to stick together and find a way out of the forest without falling prey to the deadly disease which starts to spread. As you can imagine this paves the way for some very decent levels of gore. I have to say here the special effects were rather well done, especially considering Mr. Roth shot this film as an independent and it was his first feature-length film.
THE VERDICT
Overall this is a pretty cool film. The acting (from the unknown cast) was as good as it needed to be for this kind of film. The gore effects were meaty and convincing enough to keep most gorehounds happy. Cabin Fever paved the way for Eli Roth to become a household name not only in gore films but mainstream cinema as well after this independently produced film was picked up by NewLine and took in box office takings of around $35 million worldwide (from a $3.5m budget). While this is no classic in my opinion its definitely a pretty solid and enjoyable flick!
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