Dir. Eli Roth (2002)
A group of teens gets in way over their heads when their vacation is ruined by a flesh-eating virus.
CAUTION: THIS MOVIE'S SUBJECT & CONTENT IS EXTREMELY DISTURBING AND/OR BRUTAL. I HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO INCLUDE ANY PICTURES IN THIS REVIEW BECAUSE THEY MAY BE UPSETTING TO SOME READERS. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
Cabin Fever tells the story of how a group of teenagers get caught in a deadly jam with a horrifying, yet confusing disease. The symptoms are as follows: vertigo, vomiting blood, skin lesions, and turning into dog nip (seriously). As the story progresses, all but one get the disease and two of them get eaten by a dog. The ending is fantastic and will have you fearing any kind of sick person for weeks.
I was introduced to Cabin Fever a few years back, and I instantly fell in love with it. Watching it again, I feel refreshed. So many movies now are centered around the dreaded Zombie Virus. Now, I may be a tad bit biased toward this movie, as I am infatuated with virology, but regardless of your interests, it is absolute blast to watch. The movie itself was very well directed, the actors were pretty believable, and the story was entertaining. One of the things I enjoyed the most about Cabin Fever was how seamlessly the plot moved. There were no slow spots at all, which is pretty hard to do. The scientific aspect of the movie was pretty accurate as well. Hollywood has a tendency to tweak the biology of viruses for scare factor. The realism of the sickness is the true horror of this movie. Escaping sickness is impossible. You cannot help but wince at every cough or think about how your most recent itch could be your skin about to fall off. Coincidentally, I got sick the first time after I watched it and the most recent time as well, so as you can imagine, I cannot stop thinking about it.
It takes a lot of skill to actually scare a viewer, especially horror junkies (which I’m sure most of you are). If this movie can psych you out enough to actually get physically ill, it deserves some respect. It is the movies like this that make me love the genre as a whole. Movies like Cabin Fever instill lasting fear into the viewer: they can make you afraid to sleep, eat, or even breathe. Cabin Fever does just this. It can turn a tiny itch into the exhilarating, looming terror that stays in the back of your head that all horror movie fanatics are looking for. It might not be a classic, but it is a must-have for any horror movie collection. I give this movie 4.5/5 stars.
Note: This was a guest post by my son, who we'll call Lil' Rev. It doesn't quite follow the same structure as my other reviews, but it's a great review nonetheless.
