Cabin Fever (2002) Directed by Eli Roth
Whilst taking a late night trip to Walmart to buy more painting supplies for my house, I strolled by the movie section and saw that they had Cabin Fever on DVD for only $5. Since it has been a couple years since I watched this, I figured I would buy it and give a review of it. The last time I saw this movie was in Bay City at the Hells Half Mile Film Festival. It was in 2012 I believe and they had a special screening with an introduction and Q&A with Rider Strong and Joey Kern. It was really cool hearing what all went into the movie and how much of a film genius that Eli Roth is. Then afterwards I failed to get my wife Rider Strong’s autograph on her first season of Boy Meets World, sad day.
A hermit is walking around in the woods and he comes across his dog, he tries to move the dog and it rips apart due to a horribly bloody infection. Later they show a group of college students, Jeff, Marcy, Paul, Karen, and Burt traveling to the woods to have spring break in a remote cabin. Jeff (Joey Kern) and Marcy (Cerina Vincent) are in a relationship together, while Paul (Rider Strong) is trying to get with Karen (Jordan Ladd), whom is his long time friend. Burt (James DeBello) plays the third wheel, which is always fun I suppose. On their way up they visit a general store and Paul sits next to an odd young boy on a swing, the boy grabs Paul’s hand and bites it. They go into the store and purchase all they need from the kindly old man manning the register. He tells them the history of his bottle collection and makes them sandwiches. They pack up a big supply of beer and food and head off into the woods. They reach the cabin and Jeff and Marcy instantly start banging. Marcy has some pretty awesome boobs, just saying. After the rough and awkward sex scene we see Paul (whom I’ll just refer to as Shawn Hunter) and Karen go down to the lake to take a swim. Shawn and Karen start kissing a little when she rolls off the raft and into the water, thus giving old Mr. Hunter blue balls. Burt (who I always just call that actor Tripp, which was his character in Detroit Rock City) goes into the woods to shoot squirrels. Burt accidentally shoots the hermit, whom now has the bad disease his dog did earlier. The man comes towards Burt and he says he is going to go get help and runs off.
Later in the night the group has a bonfire and they are joined by a drifter named Justin aka Grimm (Eli Roth) who opens up a big bag of weed and they start smoking. A storm rolls in and Grimm leaves with his dog to go pack up his camp. They go inside and wait for Grimm to return, when they get a knock on the door. Standing on the other side is the Hermit from earlier whom is now in much worse shape. Burt slams the door in his face and the Hermit attempts to steal the truck while puking blood all over the inside. The guys go out and try to get the Hermit to leave, but just end up beating the shit out of the truck. The Hermit staggers out and towards the girls, until Shawn accidentally sets him on fire and the guy runs off into the woods. The next morning Burt and Jeff go off trying to find help and stumble across a crazy woman in a bar slaughtering a pig. She yells at them saying that the pig is sick and she can’t eat it. They find out that she is the cousin of the hermit that they set on fire the night before. Back at the cabin Grimm’s dog starts being a dick trying to attack the rest of the group. Shawn later gets help from Deputy Winston (Guiseppe Andrews) whom keeps calling Shawn “Party Dude” and talks about how much he loves to party. He takes down Shawn’s statement and says its not a big deal, he’ll take care of it, and in the meantime he should just party. Shawn goes to comfort Karen, whom is upset about the hermit still, and she continues to drink a mug of water Shawn gives her. He goes and lays in bed with her, they start kissing and he starts fingering her, only to find that she has the same infection as the hermit. The others run and decide to isolate her in the shed outside the cabin.
Burt finally fixes the truck but suddenly gets sick, coughing blood. He realizes he is infected and doesn’t tell the others. Karen vomits blood all over the truck and Jeff takes the remaining beer and leaves. Burt goes back to the store to get help but the odd boy on the swing screams “PANCAKES!” a bunch of times and does some crazy karate moves, then bites Burt. The boy’s dad comes out and knows Burt is sick and threatens to shoot him, calling for a rifle. Burt runs off in the truck trying to escape, but he is chased by the boy’s father and his friends. After moving Karen back to the shed, Marcy and Shawn talk for a bit. Marcy says that she knows everyone is going to die from the virus and it makes her want to fuck the first person she sees to enjoy sex one last time. So, Shawn and Marcy go and bang it out. Marcy then realizes she has the virus and freaks out, while bathing she shaves her legs, ripping off chunks of skin while she does it. She panics and runs out side, where Grimm’s dog attacks and kills her.
Meanwhile, Shawn discovers the hermit’s body floating the reservoir, revealing that the infection has been spreading through water consumption. While he flips the body over in the water, he falls in and right on top of the corpse, which is pretty disgusting. He gets out of the water and races back to the cabin to find Grimm’s dog eating Karen. He kills the dog with Burt’s gun and then beats Karen to death with a shovel to put her out of her misery. Burt then returns to the cabin, still getting chased by the boy’s dad and friends. Burt is shot by the guys who are killed by Shawn Hunter and he goes to find Jeff. After finding the body of Grimm and discovering signs that he is infected now, Shawn takes the guys truck and hits a deer, covering him in blood. He stumbles across Winston, whom is partying of course, with under-aged kids in the woods. Winston is radioed about several infected people in a cabin going on a killing spree, Shawn attacks Winston’s friends before knocking Winston out. Shawn is later picked up by a truck and dropped off at the hospital. There he is interrogated about the virus, but he can’t provide a response. The sheriff orders Winston to take care of Shawn. Shawn warns Winston about the drinking water but Winston drops him off at the creek.
The next day, Jeff comes out of hiding and goes to the cabin. He screams that he has survived, only to be shot multiple times by police, reminiscent of the final scene in Night of the Living Dead. Back at the general store, a couple of children sell lemonade made from the creek water that Shawn was dumped in. A large truck drives off with bottles of water taken from the creek to sell at stores.
This is a low budget movie, about 1.5 Million dollars, but it grossed over 30 million. Cabin Fever put Eli Roth on the map in the horror genre. This put out a few sequels which I hear are terrible so I really don’t have much drive to watch them. The special effects in this movie are pretty damn good, the virus is disgusting and the scene where Marcy shaves her leg is iconic for sure. My favorite character was Winston, because he’s so odd and obsessed with partying. Both Rider and Joey said they had a hard time shooting scenes with Guiseppe, because he kept making them laugh. Also the infamous “PANCAKES!” scene was not planned to be in the movie, but Eli saw the young boy doing karate off to the side and couldn’t stop laughing, so he decided to add a scene with the boy doing it. I have heard recently that they are planning a remake of this movie, which I really don’t see the point. It is only 13 years old and I don’t really think it needs a remake to be honest, it is what it is. I’m not sure how you can improve the movie, it easily does what it set out to do. It is one of the best disease horror movies I’ve ever seen, if that is really a genre? If you are a horror fan, and an Eli Roth fan, I would suggest watching this, it is fun and gross. The acting is pretty good, I always enjoy Rider Strong and think that he is talented but he says that acting, while fun kind of wore him out. Since he was on Boy Meets World for seven season and a couple movies afterwards, I’m sure it did take a toll on him. I would give this movie a solid B, while it is better than some people say, it is not as great as others say. I would say that I am a happy medium to the two groups, I enjoy this movie but it isn’t my favorite. Kick back, grab a beer and watch this for what it is, a fun, gory cabin horror movie. If you’re up to it, maybe eat some pancakes to celebrate the zany scene.
