"Cabin Fever"

"Cabin Fever" (2002) was basically the start of Eli Roth's tremendous career. In what has become his style, this movie contains some gruesome horror and almost unnecessary and out-of-place comedy. But that's Eli Roth for you.

I love this box art. Just the way the trees and the cabin form a skull looks great. 

Five friends rent a cabin in the woods. On the first night, a bet is made about only drinking beer for the rest of the trip. Later that night, a sickly looking man comes to the cabin looking for help. The interaction soon turns violent, and they end up accidentally burning the man to death. The man has a very contagious illness that causes your flesh to melt and eventually causes you to die. He falls into the local reservoir, contaminating the local water supply. Good thing everyone was only drinking beer. You can't survive on beer alone, you say? Yeah, one of the kids drinks the water and things start to go wrong for these walking cliches. 

And boy are they walking cliches. Paul has had a crush on Karen for years, but he's "the nice guy". Jeff and Marcy are the horndog couple that turn every discussion towards anger. Bert is a man-child. 

There have been a lot of "cabin in the woods" movies, starting back in 1981 with "Evil Dead" (We have the 2013 remake, but not the original). Hell, the next movie we watch is aptly named "Cabin in the Woods" (and it deals very well with all these stereotypes in a very "meta" way). "Cabin Fever" is not the best, but its also not the worst. It's watchable.

The script isn't awful, but there are some moments that really make you scratch your head as to their inclusion (The Pancakes and Kid Kung Fu scene, or the guy partially swallowing a harmonica). I think the thing that really brings this movie down is Bert. He exacerbates all interactions. He's yelling for about half of his lines for seemingly no real reason. He's all for treating his own friends like caged animals.

If you're a fan of the "friends rent a cabin in the woods and things go as you'd expect them to" thing, than this movie is worth a watch. If you're not into the cabin thing, don't bother. This is not much different than all the other ones. See you tomorrow for a far superior horror-comedy about a group of college students who rent a cabin in the woods.

And yet again, two sequels. Don't see them. We watched the second one when it was brand new, and it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. They also recently remade it, and the reviews label it atrocious.