Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever

Starring Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent

Directed by Eli Roth

The Story:
Friends Paul (Rider Strong), Burt (James DeBello), Karen (Jordan Ladd), Marcy (Cerina Vincent) and Jeff (Joey Kern) decide to go to a rustic cabin to enjoy some relaxation for Spring Break and for a chance to be together.  It's all a picturesque scene until a sick man arrives at their doorstep, and they soon realize there's a virus out there that eats away at your skin.

Soon the friends turn on one another as they start showing symptoms of the disease, and the search begins to find a cure before it kills them all.

The Synopsis:
Today, the name Eli Roth is synonymous with gross-out horror.  He's directed some of the most grotesque films of this generation, including "Hostel," "Knock Knock" and "The Green Inferno," but his major directorial debut still holds the most impact.  He co-wrote the film with his friend Randy Pearlstein, and centers around a naive group of students who happen upon a deadly virus in the middle of the woods.

From the moment the film starts, we see Roth's gory goodness in its truest form, as we see a dead dog totally eaten from the inside out by the disease.  It only amps up from there as we meet our protagonists, who by all means seem to fill the typical stock characters for a horror movie, but for a film like this it's not extremely important to fully flesh out their characteristics.  Rider Strong (of "Boy Meets World" fame) has definitely grown up and plays the nice, innocent Paul (well, mostly innocent anyway).  Jordan Ladd plays the nice girl Karen, while Cerina Vincent plays the slutty Marcy.  Joey Kern plays the cocky jock Jeff, while James DeBello plays the outcast Burt, and is easily the most annoying of the group.  Basically they just exist for the audience to take bets on who bites the big one first.

As the virus spreads, we see their tight-knit friendship unravel, as mistrust leads to mutiny, and caring leads to catastrophe.  One of them is confined to an outdoor tool shed, while everyone else tries to hide their maladies to avoid a similar fate.  True friends stick through everything together - unless they literally begin sticking to things.  Then all bets are out the window, and its every man for themselves.  Just like there's no honor among thieves, there's no love lost between friends who mistrust each other.

Even today, fifteen years later, the effects still hold up to the test of time.  The virus looks absolutely disgusting, and that one particular scene involving a main character falling into the water on top of a virus-ridden body is still cringe-worthy, but not as cringe-worthy as that now iconic scene of a girl in a bathtub shaving her legs.  It's the modern equivalent of the big "Psycho" shower scene, and will be sure to induce goosebumps when viewing it even now.  That's the staying power of Eli Roth, that he can direct such a macabre film so many years ago and make it relevant today (although back then they didn't have cell phones, so them searching for a phone in town is pretty dated and unintentionally humorous).  Speaking of humorous, the film is filled with dark humor that only comes from the mind of Roth, and it's definitely unique (the townsfolk are an interesting window dressing to the story).

The Summary:
Eli Roth blends dark humor, horror, the macabre and the utterly grotesque in "Cabin Fever," a film that will make you think twice about the water you're drinking, especially on a trip to the woods.

The Score: A