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DAY 35: October 5th, 2008.

Cabin Fever



Here is our buddy Eli Roth again. I figured I'd give more then one of his films a chance (second chance actually). Cabin Fever stars Boy Meets World favourite Shaun Hunter, or by his real name Rider Strong, which is also a good porn name. Also, Jordan Ladd plays his girlfriend. Along with their friends they go up to a Cabin to celebrate graduating. Things go bad when one gets a flesh eating disease and the friends turn on each other for survival.

Sound familiar? Well, it's basically a remake of Evil Dead, with changes here and there. Instead of the undead, it's simply a flesh eating disease. There you go, same movie. The big difference is Evil Dead is pure genius, where Cabin Fever is a poor imitator.

Why doesn't Cabin Fever play out like a decent homage to older scary horror films, because it's tries to be better then what it actually is. Cabin Fever is a B horror film that thinks it's actually scary. I'm sorry, but it isn't. One main problem is the atmosphere. What made Evil Dead scary was that the cabin was in the middle of nowhere. They were stuck and had no place to go. Here, there is a town not ten minutes away. Get in car, go to town, or better yet go home, movie over. I just couldn't get into it knowing that salvation was minutes away. The suspense is all gone.

If it's not ripping off Evil Dead (Roth can call it homage all he wants, but it was a rip-off) then it's Night Of The Living Dead. Straight up, one character dies exactly the same way as another in the original Night of the Living Dead. When a film has a homage, there is a wink and a nod, Cabin Fever never winks or nods, he straight up steals. Not to mention half the audience watching this probably doesn't even know what films it is 'homaging'.

Now I know Roth loves horror films and I know his intentions might have been good, but it just doesn't come across in the same manner, to me at least. the guy isn't a bad director, he just needs better, more original material.

I enjoyed the make-up though. That was probably the most scary thing.

Also...pancakes?