Review- Cabin Fever

Allow me to defend this film from a sea of harsh criticisms.

It can't decide whether it wants to be a horror movie or a comedy. As a comedy, it's freaking hilarious. As a horror movie, it's gross, unpredictable, and squirm-inducing. I'm not going to praise a movie for succeeding in what it tried to do. I mean, the Saw films are supposed to gross you out, and they do. Does that mean they are good movies? No. But Cabin Fever should at least warrant some praise for delivering both genuine laughs and scares.

It tackles too much at once, i.e. political, social, and biological overtones. Sure, Cabin Fever can be a little ambitious at times, but it is never boring. I always feel that great movies can be discussed for more than a couple of hours, and my friends and I have discussed this film for many-a-conversation. Don't think of it as cramming, think of it as layering. The film can be analyzed from many different viewpoints, and, most importantly, it never feels overwhelming. However, take a film like Batman Begins, which takes on too much at once, or The Strangers, which would've functioned better as a short. And although Cabin Fever isn't perfect by any means, to say that it's too ambitious would be to criticize practically every first film by a great director. I think Eli Roth will come up with more than a few masterpieces in the future.

The acting sucks. For crying out loud, its an b-movie homage! Whether or not the bad acting is intentional or not doesn't detract from the atmosphere. You really get the feeling that you are watching a film from the 80s or early 70s.

The characters are unlikeable. Okay, so, you're right, this isn't a Tarantino or Coen or Allen film. You don't fall in love with the characters, nor do you need to. I didn't have too much of a problem with anyone. I was surprised that I started liking Brent, who initially seems to be the jackass of the group. Rider Strong's character isn't bad either, and I don't have a hardtime at all relating to him. The only problem I could see was with Jordan Ladd's part, but she exits from focus after a while.

WTF is up with the Kung-Fu Pancakes scene? I don't know. And I don't really care. I thought it was really funny, and it seems to me to be an homage to films with unexplainable moments such as the popcorn scene in Troll 2, the bear-costume scene in The Shining (which is referenced later in Cabin Fever with the guy in the bunny suit), the deer-head scene in Evil Dead 2, the zombie vs. shark scene in Zombi 2, the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the candy-bar-ax scene in Friday the 13th Part IV, or the Kung-Fu scene from Pieces. So it's weird. Why have audiences gotten so nit-picky?

I love the film. Paired with The Devil's Rejects, Trick'r'Treat, Slither, and Shaun of the Dead, I may even consider it to be one of my favorites of the '00s. All I can say to audiences is, quit band-wagoning. I think that Alien was a little overpraised and Halloween III: Season of the Witch was destroyed because audiences can't form their own opinions and have to turn to critics for the answer.

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