Cabin Fever (2002)

A group of five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus, which attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals.

Director:

Eli Roth

Writers:

Eli Roth, Randy Pearlstein

Stars:

Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong, James DeBello

2 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rider Strong	...	Paul
Jordan Ladd	...	Karen
James DeBello	...	Bert
Cerina Vincent	...	Marcy
Joey Kern	...	Jeff
Arie Verveen	...	Henry (The Hermit)
Robert Harris	...	Old Man Cadwell
Hal Courtney	...	Tommy
Matthew Helms	...	Dennis
Richard Boone	...	Fenster
Tim Parati	...	Andy
Dalton McGuire	...	Lemonade Boy
Jana Farmer	...	Lemonade Girl
Dante Walker	...	Shemp
Jeff Rendell	...	Fake Shemp

Storyline

The college friends Paul, Karen, Bert, Marcy and Jeff rent an isolated cabin in the woods to spend a week together. When they arrive, a man contaminated with a weird disease asks for help to them, but they get in panic and burn the man, who falls in the water reservoir and dies. The whole group, except Karen, makes a pact of drinking only beer along the week without knowing where the dead body is. When Karen drinks tap water and gets the disease, the group begins their journey to hell.

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Plot Keywords:

virus | group of five | disease | flesh eating virus | woods | 

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Taglines:

Unsichtbar. Lautlos. Tödlich. (Invisible. Silent. Deadly.) (German DVD)

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and gore, sexuality, language and brief drug use

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 September 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cabin Fever

Filming Locations:

Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$8,633,585 (USA) (12 September 2003)

Gross:

$219,056 (Australia) (5 December 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tonic Films, Down Home Entertainment, Black Sky Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 98 min (unrated director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Peter Jackson stopped production on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) three times to screen this movie for the entire crew. Jackson was so enthusiastic about the film he gave director Eli Roth publicity quotes.

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Goofs

After Paul disinfects himself following his quick fling with Marcy, the level of Listerine in the bottle is clearly beneath the word "Listerine" on the label. In the next scene, when Marcy is washing her face, the bottle is clearly visible in the background and the level in the bottle is clearly above the word "Listerine".

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Quotes

[first lines]
The Hermit: Hey, boy. Hey, boy. Hey, boy. Unn? C'mon, boy. Hey. Hey. Hey, fella.

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Crazy Credits

Dr. Sheldon Roth ... Set Psychiatrist

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Connections

Featured in Phelous & the Movies: Hostel Phostel (2010)

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Soundtracks

Wastin' Time
Written by Scott Kinnebrew
Performed by Scrappy Hamilton

User Reviews

An unfairly criticised debut; it really is not that bad

Eli Roth's debut, Cabin Fever, seems to be hated by the majority on IMDb and many other critics. I, however, found this to be a rather enjoyable little film that just falls short of being great. To sum up this movie: take a bit of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a bit of The Evil Dead, a couple of elements from The Thing and Last House on the Left and you have Cabin Fever. A horror movie about five teenagers going to holiday in a cabin in the woods after college where the nearest town is filled with hicks and everything is slowly getting infected by an unknown virus which starts to turn everyone against each other. Roth blends horror with a small amount of comedy which suits this type of movie.

The five teens are a mixed bunch (the dumb guy, the horny couple and the innocent couple). Most of them swear, drink, have wild sex and smoke drugs and because of this may seem annoying and clichéd, on the contrary, Roth has captured the attitude of what teenagers were (and still are) like. We do all that they do (well, not so much drugs..) and to me that makes them more realistic. The locals aren't so realistic and seem to be their for comic relief and body count (which isn't a bad thing). There is plenty of gore and plenty of scenes to make you squirm in disgust.

The reason I don't give this a really high score is because the pacing seemed jumbled to me. For me, the running time was really short and there were not enough scares throughout. This movie had potential to be more than the final product but I respect what Roth has done and considering it was his first movie it is remarkably good and for that I give it:

8/10