Amazon.co.uk Review
A sneaky and surprisingly smart horror flick, Cabin Fever sets up all the clichés of its particular subgenre (what might be called the "sexy young people go into the woods" horror movie, featuring hostile redneck locals, dead animals on hooks, cars that suddenly stop running, and so on) and by the end has played a clever twist on every standard element, often to darkly comic effect. What's the plot? Well, five sexy young people (Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, Joey Kern, Cerina Vincent, and James DeBello) go to an isolated cabin where they contract a nasty bacteria that eats their flesh; this, combined with a bad-tempered dog and a party-loving police deputy (Giuseppe Andrews, giving a particularly funny performance), leads everyone into confusion and bloody chaos. Some of the ironic twists are a little obvious, but most of them effectively subvert your expectations to entertaining effect. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews:
Empty, vapid and a real disappointment........2008-02-01
Cabin Fever (2003) is director Eli Roth's attempt to revive the splatter film genre, by here combining elements of George A. Romero-style zombie horror with touches of "the kids in the cabin" theatrics of Sam Raimi; all tied together with further references to films such as Sleepaway Camp, Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies, Deliverance, Sothern Comfort, Evil Dead and The Last House on the Left. Sadly, for all the clever references, buckets of gore and sporadic bursts of T&A, the film is ultimately devoid of all sense of character or empathy; giving us a film that fails to create any kind of emotional resonance with the audience or anything that leaves a lasting impression after the final credits have rolled.
Now, before I continue, let me just say, I actually really dislike writing negative reviews for things. I mean, who am I to tell you what is or is not a "good film"? Just because I didn't enjoy it... it doesn't mean you won't love it. In fact, you could be reading this review right now thinking what a great films this is, and how I should probably stick to fawning over Japanese Yakuza thrillers or forgotten French New Wave. But I do love horror. And more importantly, I love film. I've enjoyed all kinds of horror; from the sheer style and old-fashioned frights of The Golem or Nosferatu, right the way through to Hammer Horror and pure exploitation. I've enjoyed films as disparate and diverse as The Wicker Man, Don't Look Now, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, An American Werewolf in London, Saw and Scream, have loved the seedy cinema of Jean Rollin and the high-style of Dario Argento and everything else; right the way through to the stalk-and-slash style developed in the 70's and 80's with films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
With this in mind, I naturally wanted to love Cabin Fever. It was touted at the time as being very much a horror film for people who loved horror films, with clever references, inventive scenarios, lots of blood, and a knowing sense of irony. Sadly, the only thing it really lives up to is the violence, which is rendered useless by the utter lack of anything approaching a character we could care about. As a result, there is no real horror in this film because it's so impossible to feel anything for these empty, two-dimensional characters; especially with them being both so badly written and underdeveloped. As it is, their deaths become meaningless and their suffering used only as a means of titillating the blood lust of teenage boys. Now, obviously, I have nothing against violence in cinema, but the old adage that a little goes a long way is certainly true. For me, the most memorable scenes of violence are the ones that hold the most dramatic weight; the ones that feel real and very much believable, where we can feel for the characters in that situation and apply our own various psychological fears and anxieties alongside it.
Roth is clearly trying very hard to endear himself to the horror community, but is missing out on all the major cornerstones of what made those old classics so memorable and appealing. I'm talking about mood, character, style, atmosphere, imagination... etc. Cabin Fever has none of this, unless of course, you call racist rednecks ripped from Deliverance and the iconic music from Last House on the Left frightening. Some would argue that Roth is simply trying to follow in the footsteps of his mentor Quentin Tarantino, but you have to remember, Tarantino was genuinely radical with what he did; especially for those first three films, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. The dialog was unique; filled with wit and pop-culture references, but entirely believable to his characters and the world in which the film was set. Likewise, his use of colour, composition, music and editing were all iconic and unlike anything else we were seeing during the first half of the 1990's.
Compare this to Roth's particular style of filmmaking, which mixes crude attempts at frat-boy humour, wanton aggression, vicious violence, and knowing nods towards sexism, misogyny and even xenophobia and it becomes clear that if Tarantino was once considered to be the Bob Dylan of the radical, post-80's film generation, then Roth is this generation's cinematic equivalent of Limp Bizkit. Like Tarantino he's clearly seen a lot of films and borrows, references and pastiches with the best of them, but unlike Tarantino, you get the sense that Roth doesn't really love films, but rather, is in awe of the violence that they present to him. This is clear throughout Cabin Fever, which substitutes character development for crap jokes and plot for a series of well-executed (but meaningless) special effects. By all means feel free to disagree and offer your own opinion, but for me, as a long-time fan of horror cinema, Cabin Fever was a great disappointment.
Bloody awful.......2007-10-18
Thankfully, I didn't actually pay for this risible nonsense. I recorded it from TV.
What started off as maybe an interesting premise about a nasty virus infecting photogenic teenagers, this film (if you can call it that) quickly descends into more of a third rate black comedy than a genuine horror film.
Trouble is, it isn't scary, nor is it funny, nor is it anything like an homage to The Evil Dead. It is simply an obnoxious blood fest which should have been consigned to the nearest dustbin.
It is easily one of the worst films I've ever seen (Vlad taking the top honour).
Rubbish.......2007-09-25
All the ingredients are here for a fantastic movie - 5 beautiful teenagers holidaying in a woodland cabin, surrounded by hicks and weirdos; strange goings-on in the woods; and a flesh eating disease.
But while fans of the genre will no doubt love the blood, gore, violence and screaming that Roth throws at his audience (with plenty of stolen ideas and plagiarism from famous movies, see Evil Dead)...............however these same fans will probably be infuriated by an illogical, and silly script, in which a plethora of pointless characters and random scenes of off-the wall comedy are thrown in.
Roth can definitely build up tension and unease when he wants to (HOSTEL), but he cannot make a movie that flows from a beginning, a middle and then to an end. He is a poor movie maker. It is astonishing that he manages to get his movies into main-stream cinemas.
In conclusion, though the script goes nowhere, it is patchy and disjointed, ands therefore the movie never knows what direction to take or how or where to end.
PRAY THEY'RE OUT OF STOCK.......2007-09-24
When this film was made, the horror genre was slapped round the face with a wet kipper.
The film started badly and just got worse. People were wandering around with limbs falling off, new characters appeared from nowhere and the story was non-existent.
I think the film makers were trying to recreate a 'Hills Have Eyes' kind of film but it just didn't go in any direction. GIVE THIS ONE A MISS.
A bit of a suck-fest.......2007-09-06
Blood. Huh. Very scary. I wonder what will happen next? Guts. Oh right, yeah that's pretty horrible, what now. Blood again....umm okay yeah, eeww, tell me more....and oh look, guts! Well this is getting a bit boring, oh wait hang on I'm sure something is about to happen...wait for it...... blood AND guts!
ARE YOU STARTING TO SEE A PATTERN HERE ???
Please please please for once, can we have maybe a little bit of suspense? This film is an example of how the youth of today is being insulted through the medium of HORROR MOVIES. You directors and whatnot think that we can only be impressed by [as aforementioned] Blood and Guts.
I mean come on, what ever happened to films like 'Poltergiest' and the original 'Haunting'? I don't see those films relying on mindless gore to keep their audiences on the edge of their seats!! The fact that this film has mangled faces and bodies left right and centre does not make it a good horror. Yeah you might sit there thinking 'Oh man that is really gross', but you're not scared! I know you horror movie directors are excited at the fact that tomato ketchup is no longer a must-have prop but that does not mean you should abuse your new found special effects! Where the hell is Stephen King when you need him.
But then again, if you're into this sort of thing, [and by sort of thing I mean watching a bunch of teenagers shave their skin off and have their faces eaten by dogs but nevertheless still find time to make hay while the sun shines] then rent/buy this here film. You'll not be dissapointed.
Amazon.co.uk Review
A sneaky and surprisingly smart horror flick, Cabin Fever sets up all the clichés of its particular subgenre (what might be called the "sexy young people go into the woods" horror movie, featuring hostile redneck locals, dead animals on hooks, cars that suddenly stop running, and so on) and by the end has played a clever twist on every standard element, often to darkly comic effect. What's the plot? Well, five sexy young people (Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, Joey Kern, Cerina Vincent, and James DeBello) go to an isolated cabin where they contract a nasty bacteria that eats their flesh; this, combined with a bad-tempered dog and a party-loving police deputy (Giuseppe Andrews, giving a particularly funny performance), leads everyone into confusion and bloody chaos. Some of the ironic twists are a little obvious, but most of them effectively subvert your expectations to entertaining effect. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews:
Empty, vapid and a real disappointment........2008-02-01
Cabin Fever (2003) is director Eli Roth's attempt to revive the splatter film genre, by here combining elements of George A. Romero-style zombie horror with touches of "the kids in the cabin" theatrics of Sam Raimi; all tied together with further references to films such as Sleepaway Camp, Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies, Deliverance, Sothern Comfort, Evil Dead and The Last House on the Left. Sadly, for all the clever references, buckets of gore and sporadic bursts of T&A, the film is ultimately devoid of all sense of character or empathy; giving us a film that fails to create any kind of emotional resonance with the audience or anything that leaves a lasting impression after the final credits have rolled.
Now, before I continue, let me just say, I actually really dislike writing negative reviews for things. I mean, who am I to tell you what is or is not a "good film"? Just because I didn't enjoy it... it doesn't mean you won't love it. In fact, you could be reading this review right now thinking what a great films this is, and how I should probably stick to fawning over Japanese Yakuza thrillers or forgotten French New Wave. But I do love horror. And more importantly, I love film. I've enjoyed all kinds of horror; from the sheer style and old-fashioned frights of The Golem or Nosferatu, right the way through to Hammer Horror and pure exploitation. I've enjoyed films as disparate and diverse as The Wicker Man, Don't Look Now, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, An American Werewolf in London, Saw and Scream, have loved the seedy cinema of Jean Rollin and the high-style of Dario Argento and everything else; right the way through to the stalk-and-slash style developed in the 70's and 80's with films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
With this in mind, I naturally wanted to love Cabin Fever. It was touted at the time as being very much a horror film for people who loved horror films, with clever references, inventive scenarios, lots of blood, and a knowing sense of irony. Sadly, the only thing it really lives up to is the violence, which is rendered useless by the utter lack of anything approaching a character we could care about. As a result, there is no real horror in this film because it's so impossible to feel anything for these empty, two-dimensional characters; especially with them being both so badly written and underdeveloped. As it is, their deaths become meaningless and their suffering used only as a means of titillating the blood lust of teenage boys. Now, obviously, I have nothing against violence in cinema, but the old adage that a little goes a long way is certainly true. For me, the most memorable scenes of violence are the ones that hold the most dramatic weight; the ones that feel real and very much believable, where we can feel for the characters in that situation and apply our own various psychological fears and anxieties alongside it.
Roth is clearly trying very hard to endear himself to the horror community, but is missing out on all the major cornerstones of what made those old classics so memorable and appealing. I'm talking about mood, character, style, atmosphere, imagination... etc. Cabin Fever has none of this, unless of course, you call racist rednecks ripped from Deliverance and the iconic music from Last House on the Left frightening. Some would argue that Roth is simply trying to follow in the footsteps of his mentor Quentin Tarantino, but you have to remember, Tarantino was genuinely radical with what he did; especially for those first three films, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. The dialog was unique; filled with wit and pop-culture references, but entirely believable to his characters and the world in which the film was set. Likewise, his use of colour, composition, music and editing were all iconic and unlike anything else we were seeing during the first half of the 1990's.
Compare this to Roth's particular style of filmmaking, which mixes crude attempts at frat-boy humour, wanton aggression, vicious violence, and knowing nods towards sexism, misogyny and even xenophobia and it becomes clear that if Tarantino was once considered to be the Bob Dylan of the radical, post-80's film generation, then Roth is this generation's cinematic equivalent of Limp Bizkit. Like Tarantino he's clearly seen a lot of films and borrows, references and pastiches with the best of them, but unlike Tarantino, you get the sense that Roth doesn't really love films, but rather, is in awe of the violence that they present to him. This is clear throughout Cabin Fever, which substitutes character development for crap jokes and plot for a series of well-executed (but meaningless) special effects. By all means feel free to disagree and offer your own opinion, but for me, as a long-time fan of horror cinema, Cabin Fever was a great disappointment.
Bloody awful.......2007-10-18
Thankfully, I didn't actually pay for this risible nonsense. I recorded it from TV.
What started off as maybe an interesting premise about a nasty virus infecting photogenic teenagers, this film (if you can call it that) quickly descends into more of a third rate black comedy than a genuine horror film.
Trouble is, it isn't scary, nor is it funny, nor is it anything like an homage to The Evil Dead. It is simply an obnoxious blood fest which should have been consigned to the nearest dustbin.
It is easily one of the worst films I've ever seen (Vlad taking the top honour).
Rubbish.......2007-09-25
All the ingredients are here for a fantastic movie - 5 beautiful teenagers holidaying in a woodland cabin, surrounded by hicks and weirdos; strange goings-on in the woods; and a flesh eating disease.
But while fans of the genre will no doubt love the blood, gore, violence and screaming that Roth throws at his audience (with plenty of stolen ideas and plagiarism from famous movies, see Evil Dead)...............however these same fans will probably be infuriated by an illogical, and silly script, in which a plethora of pointless characters and random scenes of off-the wall comedy are thrown in.
Roth can definitely build up tension and unease when he wants to (HOSTEL), but he cannot make a movie that flows from a beginning, a middle and then to an end. He is a poor movie maker. It is astonishing that he manages to get his movies into main-stream cinemas.
In conclusion, though the script goes nowhere, it is patchy and disjointed, ands therefore the movie never knows what direction to take or how or where to end.
PRAY THEY'RE OUT OF STOCK.......2007-09-24
When this film was made, the horror genre was slapped round the face with a wet kipper.
The film started badly and just got worse. People were wandering around with limbs falling off, new characters appeared from nowhere and the story was non-existent.
I think the film makers were trying to recreate a 'Hills Have Eyes' kind of film but it just didn't go in any direction. GIVE THIS ONE A MISS.
A bit of a suck-fest.......2007-09-06
Blood. Huh. Very scary. I wonder what will happen next? Guts. Oh right, yeah that's pretty horrible, what now. Blood again....umm okay yeah, eeww, tell me more....and oh look, guts! Well this is getting a bit boring, oh wait hang on I'm sure something is about to happen...wait for it...... blood AND guts!
ARE YOU STARTING TO SEE A PATTERN HERE ???
Please please please for once, can we have maybe a little bit of suspense? This film is an example of how the youth of today is being insulted through the medium of HORROR MOVIES. You directors and whatnot think that we can only be impressed by [as aforementioned] Blood and Guts.
I mean come on, what ever happened to films like 'Poltergiest' and the original 'Haunting'? I don't see those films relying on mindless gore to keep their audiences on the edge of their seats!! The fact that this film has mangled faces and bodies left right and centre does not make it a good horror. Yeah you might sit there thinking 'Oh man that is really gross', but you're not scared! I know you horror movie directors are excited at the fact that tomato ketchup is no longer a must-have prop but that does not mean you should abuse your new found special effects! Where the hell is Stephen King when you need him.
But then again, if you're into this sort of thing, [and by sort of thing I mean watching a bunch of teenagers shave their skin off and have their faces eaten by dogs but nevertheless still find time to make hay while the sun shines] then rent/buy this here film. You'll not be dissapointed.
UK DVD:
- Candyman : Collectors Edition [1992]
- Carrie [1976]
- Child's Play 2 [1991]
- Child's Play 3 [1991]
- Christine [1983]
- Christine [1984]
- Count Dracula [1977]
- Creep [2004]
- Creepshow 2
- Cursed [2005]
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UK DVD
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