Cabin Fever

TIFF [2002]

Capsule Review Only Our full coverage and more indepth reviews will be published after the Festival has ended Receive email when this page changes

(USA 2002)
Directed by Eli Roth
Written by Randy Perlstein and Eli Roth
Cast: Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent, Joey Kern, Arie Verveen

The closing film of the Midnight Madness programme, Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever”, is that rare find that comes in under the radar to show the rest of the competition—“Jason in space”, anyone? --how it’s done. When was the last time you saw a horror film with the good sense to adhere to Joe Bob Brigg’s supreme rule for making an effective chiller: “Anybody Can Die At Any Moment” (well, okay, last year’s “Jeepers Creepers”, but even that one was a long time coming)? In JBB’s terms, it’s THE Spam In A Cabin movie of 2002, and likely 2003, too, I’ll bet, when Lion’s Gate Entertainment will finally release it to cinemas.

“Cabin Fever” transplants “Ten Little Indians” into the age of “The Hot Zone” (one does wonder why it took so long for someone to latch on to such an obvious but effective premise). Six teens venture into the woods to host a private graduation party. After encountering some suitably bizarre country locals, they retreat to their rented cottage for a weekend blowout of sex, drugs, hunting, and outrageous campfire stories (not necessarily in that order). But when a horribly diseased vagrant happens upon their revelry and spews up blood, he unleashes a contagious virus that induces instantaneous, accelerated decay in its host and of course, moves through the group, into the local water supply, and beyond that…?

Talk Back

You’ll probably figure out the rest, but that’s the fun.

First-timer Roth ignores the MTV/“Matrix”-inspired flourishes of the current cinematic style guide and instead takes his cues from the classic independent horror films of the 60s, 70s, and 80s (most of them cited in last year’s “American Nightmare”). We start comfortably with the setup from “Evil Dead” (not to mention “Friday The 13th”, “Sleepaway Camp”, “The Burning”, etc. etc.), build slowly to the who’s-got-it-who-doesn’t paranoia of “The Thing”, erupt big-time into the giddy Grande Guignol of “Rabid”, and close with the nihilistic montage of burning bodies from “Night Of The Living Dead”. Look! There’s the low-angle walk to the farmhouse from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. Listen! Isn’t that David Hess’ song “Wait For The Rain” from “Last House On The Left”? (yes, it is…)

But to suggest that Roth has simply mimicked the classics of Raimi, Romero, Hooper, etc. is to sell this spirited, witty, and downright likeable film short, thankfully free of the overused “Scream” irony of recent years. While populated with the stock college-age coeds and over-the-top hicks we’ve come to expect, just about every character is memorable (like the kung-fu fighting kid with the mullet, while others, like the ravishing Cerina Vincent, linger in the mind for reasons I’m too much of a gentleman to go into here) and writers Roth and Perlstein make damn sure we’re on everyone’s side before they are put through the worst grisly hell imaginable.

While sharing the same indie roots, this is a much slicker film than its influences—amazingly, on a limited budget (which Roth would not disclose) the filmmakers were able to shoot widescreen, and enlist the services of KNB FX, Angelo Badalamenti for the score (David Lynch is listed as “executive producers”), and afford a decent “name” celebrity, Rider Strong (of the TV’s “Boy Meets World”) in the lead as the requisite nerd-turned-hero.

In the same festival where genre veterans like DePalma and Cronenberg seemed either bored or embarrassed by their splatter roots, Roth’s enthusiasm for his debut is evident in every frame, and this film’s derivative, loopy energy rejuvenated my passion for movies after 10 long, subtext-heavy days, reminding me that a successful film, regardless of genre, connects with its viewers, and engages them in a communal experience that leaves them feeling something, if only revulsion. As if shrewdly tapping to the universal fears of rashes, sores, and STDs wasn’t enough to guarantee global box office appeal, Roth has scored the ultimate Holy Grail—that of “good timing”--thanks to current events. In the shadow of West Nile Virus scares, and even Ontario’s recent Walkerton E-Coli tragedy, “Cabin Fever” strikes closer to home than the average exploitation programmer, or any “respectable” Contemporary World Cinema entry for that matter.

- Robert L

Talk Back