Cabin Fever DVD > Reviews > Bewildering

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	The strangest film you'll ever see
Disadvantages:	Not for everybody

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

One night, a couple of weeks ago, it was decided by my good friends and I that we would check out a new movie. My friends wanted to see 'Pirates of the Carribean' and were quite adamant that they didn't want to see anything else but I pushed and lobbied for 'Cabin Fever', promising them that it sounded excellent and we all have a fun, fun, fun ol' time and bond as a group... or something. After a short debate in which I refused to go unless we watched 'Cabin Fever' (only kidding, I'm not the stubborn type) it was decided that 'Cabin Fever' would be our film. We were all so excited at seeing a new film, tense at the thought that we would all be gripped to our seats by this exciting new horror film, while chewing on the most rank popcorn known to man and slurping from Coca-Cola which to the naked eye could have just been dirty ice. What fun, we thought, how cool to see a horror film and go through the motions of being scared even though we are all around the age of 20 - what joyful things we get up to!

'Cabin Fever' was, to put it mildly, not the film I expected to see. I was expecting a straightforward horror film that would leave me a little bit tense or nervous when the film closed, as most horror films do to me (and to you, there's no point pretending, you great big bunch of wusses). Instead 'Cabin Fever' was the oddest and most dizzying cinematic experience of my relatively short life. The audience was quite a mixed bunch ranging from young teenagers (supervised, naturally, to do otherwise would be AGAINST THE LAW) to the University crowd (which my crowd fell into, not literally) and older again, even people over the grand old age of 30, and their response was strangely mixed. Some remained muted throughout the entire film, some laughed their heads off and some were scared. It is therefore completely impossible to pin down what kind of movie 'Cabin Fever', but it is safe to say I have never seen a film like it.

The plot goes as thus: five obnoxious college students, all played by unknown actors (as is the norm with these kind of movies - can anybody remember any of the cast of Blair Witch 1 or 2?) venture out into the woods to find a remote mountain cabin where they can hang out and party like it's 1999. Unfortunately, they don't get the chance to party like it's 1999 (if that was the plot of the movie it would make for quite an interesting horror flick) and instead they bump into a man who is rapidly dying of a flesh-eating virus (which makes him look well rancid, naturally). Being the kind, concerned, thoughtful students they are they do the noble thing to a man clearly in need of help and beat him up, set him on fire and dump him in the river.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT == Before I go any further, it might be helpful to point out that me giving you plot details here really won't spoil your enjoyment of the film, I really am not giving anything away == PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT OVER.

So where were we? Ah yes, dead man in river with deadly virus. Anyways, whatever virus it is that has rotted this man away (and it is never explained, folks) flows into the river and seriously contaminates the water supply. The college students start to contract the virus one by one, and one by one they drop like flies as their true feelings about each other are exposed. Indeed, the first girl to get the virus is treated so humanely - they lock her in a shed, refuse to let her out and feed her scraps.

That's the plot in a nutshell. But what makes this film so confusing is that there is so much stuff going on here - the students at one point meet up with some (surely inbred) rednecks before they find their little mountain hideaway and the exchanges that take place in this scene are very funny, almost pervesely so. The film contains so many blackly funny moments we forget we are watching a film in which a whole bunch of people are virtually slaughtered within the space of an hour and a half, which is how long I think the film runs for. Running through the film is also the theme of the urban man plunged into darkness in the unfamiliar territory of the rural landscape, a film that has been done many times before in films such as 'Deliverance'. Ultimately, in all films of this kind, we see that the urban man just cannot survive in an unfamilar environment which breaks them down and swallows them up as though they were never there - the two worlds cannot be reconciled, they must remain seperate. Let's test this theory out -

1) 'Cabin Fever' - City kids go into woods - RESULT - city kids unleash havoc and scores of people die.

2) 'Deliverance' - City men go into woods - RESULT - city men brutalised by country folk.

3) 'Blair Witch Project' - City kids go into woods - RESULT - city kids encounter terror, death and dodgy camera work.

I should be a Professor.

What is so fascinating about this film is that all five students are so completely unlikeable that we cannot have any kind of pity for them and their actions, which ultimately result in them causing their own doom. Marcy and Jeff, the two most easily dislikeable of the bunch, decide to have sex as soon as they arrive at the cabin, which is a sure sign that they are going to bite the dust in any horror film (see the rules of horror films in 'Scream' for more information) and they are thoroughly unpleasant people, motivated by their own selfish desires. Indeed, we see the darker side of human nature presented in a very subversive manner through the actions of the students when confronted by danger - they slowly turn against each other as the danger they are in dawns on them and they start to treat each other as subhumans.

Another interesting point is that the plot is so open and full of holes - nothing really is resolved by the end of the movie. Indeed, some of the plot holes are so gaping they will seriously question your understanding of the film as a whole. We are never told about the origin of the virus, we never find out if there is a cure, characters come and go with no meaning, scenes are included with very little relevance to the plot as a whole, and the scenes with the inbred townsfolk are confusing and bizarre (one of them absolutely hilarious). The film makes very little sense - but then what horror film does? A critic cannot pick holes in a horror film, claiming that the film 'makes no sense'. Of course, 'The Exorcist' happens every day, doesn't it? And it's only yesterday that I bumped into Freddy Krueger down at the grocery store. Nice chap. Come off it, horror films aren't meant to be realistic, they just aren't rooted into any kind of reality. And if you want an unrealistic film with no menaingful explanation or resolution then 'Cabin Fever' is the film for you.

The film is also the goriest and bloodiest film in many a year, reminding me of classic horror films like 'The Evil Dead', which has a pretty similar premise. That, in fact, is another one to add to the list above - urban folk go into the hills and don't come out alive. Gee, I'm good at this. Also, it includes one of the best 'Is it safe to look at the screen yet?' moments when one of the students tries to shave her legs while suffering from the effects of the flesh-eating virus. Eurrrrggghh. Aside from the fact that it is blatantly an attempt to sensationalise and be a talking point, and also an excuse to show a female character in the bath, it is a really good cinematic moment because it has NO POINT WHATSOEVER. Like so many moments in this film, there is no reason behind it, there is just no sense in it. And that is why I enjoyed this film so much, a chaotic, random movie that keeps you guessing.

This film also has some of the blackest humour you are ever likely to encounter. Mass slaughter of college kids, a river polluted with deadly toxins, a virus that rots away the flesh, and we had an audience that was erupting with laughter at almost every moment. There are so many funny moments on display here we feel bad for laughing, and then we think of how unpleasant the characters are and we realise that we are justified in laughing. Then we are reminded that people are dying and we question ourselves. This film is extremely clever and powerful, though not immediately so.

When my friends and I left the movie theatre, the general consensus among the group was that it was the worst film they had ever seen and THEY would pick the movie next time, not give in to my petulant whims. However, I thoroughly enjoyed it. A spectacular film full of plot holes, completely unlikeable characters and a series of events so impossible it beggars belief. But at the same time it is fascinating! I strongly reccommend this film for its novelty value as the strangest film you will ever see, but if you just want a boring old horror film then keep well away, disbeliever!