Review by CJ

Director:
Travis Z

Starring:
Gage Golightly, Matthew Daddario, Samuel Davis, Nadine Crocker, Dustin Ingram

Running time:
99 minutes

Watch this if you liked:
Cabin Fever (2002), Evil Dead (2013)

Five friends go on a holiday to a cabin in remote woods where, after a chance encounter with a hermit, one of them contracts a tenacious flesh-eating virus. With no help nearby and their car out of order, can the other four survive or will they themselves catch the cabin fever?

I kept waiting for there to be an explanation as to why this was happening or where the virus originated, but none came. The plot and dialogue also seemed to allude to there being a The Cabin in the Woods type twist, but that never arrived either. It just felt like Cabin Fever wasn’t quite finished. As though someone had slapped together the start of a really good horror film, but not bothered to polish it.

In saying that, the special effects in Cabin Fever are gruesomely good. There is one particularly effective scene in a bathtub.

I haven’t seen the original 2002 film upon which this film is based, but the story in Cabin Fever is definitely an interesting one. It’s just unfortunate that it is left feeling incomplete and more hole-ridden than a water barrel in a Western.

None of the characters in Cabin Fever were particularly likeable or redeemable, though, unlike most films, TV shows or books, this didn’t affect the enjoyment of the film too much. I think, in the case of horror films at least, the likeability of the characters depends on the sub-genre. In this particular sub-genre — gore based rather than atmospheric, supernatural or jump-scare — the characters are incidental and it is primarily plot driven.

Overall, I enjoyed Cabin Fever despite its flaws, but it’s not something that I would watch again as I was frustrated that more was alluded to but never paid off.

Rating:

“We’re all gonna get it. We’re all gonna get sick.”