 |
|
|
 |
|
| 9/17/2003 |
| Cabin Fever: I'm Freaking Out Man |
by Wes Bennett
|
“Cabin Fever” is one of the most audacious film debuts in recent memory. Writer/director/producer Eli Roth spent the last 8 years trying to get the film made and it proves well worth the wait.
Would you be willing to risk your life to help someone knowing they are very sick and might infect you? This simple premise is brilliantly played out throughout the film as Roth plays on some of our most primal fears: death, isolation and helplessness.
Plagiarizing a page out of “The Evil Dead,” five friends, not so much characters as iconic movie types including the stud (Joey Kern), the sensitive guy (Rider Strong), the good girl (Jordan Ladd), the topless babe (Cerina Vincent), and the Belushi-ish party animal (James DeBello), escape to a remote log cabin in the woods, for one week of sex, drugs and, well, more sex and drugs.
Merriment and good times sour when a delirious stranger with a gag-inducing skin disease crashes their party and asks for their help. They don't give it. Shots are fired, cars are wrecked, people are lit on fire and beaten and before long the lunatic flees into the woods and dives into the local reservoir. His rotting corpse soon infects their drinking water with a mysterious flesh-devouring virus.
Soon one member of the circle gets ill and her skin starts to bubble and burn as a trail of oozing sores ravages her flesh. The group’s compassion quickly turns to repulsion and terror and to protect themselves from further infection, they lock her in a shed.
Although the group is stranded, director Eli Roth is skillful enough to devise viable reasons to have them split up, venture out beyond the campsite, and find even more trouble. Usually horror films involve the character being stupid: falling down or going alone into an empty house with no lights. But in “Fever” the characters gradually fence themselves in from having any kind of hope in a way that is, for the most part, pretty believable.
There were some truly horrific and unforgettable scenes, the best being a squirm inducing look at an infected girl attempting to shave her diseased legs.
Even the throwaway lines were great. A young boy with a mullet shrieking “Pancakes! Pancakes!” -Before biting someone’s hands.
The Belushi character explains he wants to shoot squirrels because “They’re gay.” Stuff like that which is original and bizarre would have been cut from a more mainstream film.
The movie could have been really scary, but Roth goes for comedy some of the time which arguably undercuts the overall mood. That being said, this was an extremely entertaining film that captivated the audience. When Roth goes for comedy, it’s very funny. Whether we're terrified, laughing out loud, grossed-out or merely uneasy, Roth has us exactly where he wants us almost every frame of his picture. Indeed the entire theater was riveted throughout the entire presentation.
At the end of the day, we only “see” a movie for 90 minutes. We are left with the rest of our lives to discuss and think about it. With that in mind, movies should be about provoking a reaction and being memorable, and “Cabin Fever” is one that undeniably makes an impression. “Cabin Fever” is truly an enjoyable film and the most fun I’ve had in a while at the movies.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Distributed Beers
|
| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
|
|
|
|
|
