They should've gone Camping.

#27 - Cabin Fever - 2002

"That guy asked for our help. We lit him on fire. You'll understand if I'm not in a particularly social mood."
-- Karen

This film was always marketed as a kind of extreme Horror (Thanks in no small part to it's Director, Eli Roth). But I've always thought of it more as a dark comedy. So it also comes as no surprise that David Lynch is listed in the credits (In reality Roth did animation work for Lynch, but it's not difficult to think some of the Great Man rubbed off on Roth. So to speak).

A group of friends head out to a Cabin in the woods and as these things do, they discover a flesh eating virus. And in one case a Rabid Dog.

This film has come to be a little bit mis-understood over the last few years. As I mentioned it was touted as a sort of comeback of extreme horror, probably because Bizarre Splatter Comedy was too hard to market. In some ways it reminds me of 'Return of the Living Dead' in that Roth get's as much mileage out of the assortment of characters on show as he does the plot itself.

Again why is character important? Horror film characters often act the same as characters in say...Romantic comedies. Their decisions are guided by whatever the plot happens to dictate to them. You need a character outside alone so that they can be the next victim? Then just have them walk out there, even though we recognize it's a stupid decision, it's what the plot dictates. Your female lead can't see what a shit her boyfriend is and how she should be with the really nice guy? That's because she's not allowed until the 3rd Act, when the plot needs her to.

The different side to that rule is when characters you begin to like make incredibly stupid decisions to us, but seem justifiable to them. We watch these films with the benefit of having the clarity to see the bigger picture, and we often make the mistake of saying "Well I would never do that". But it's a statement you can't be completely sure about because you'll never be in that situation, and if you were I don't think we would all be as level headed as we like to make out. We know they're in a Horror film, they don't. And that is how 'Cabin Fever' played out to me. They're not a bad group of kids here, so when they find themselves further and further fucked it gets a little hard to watch. Roth employed the same trick in 'Hostel' and 'Hostel Part 2', though I concede how successful he was is up to debate.

Like I said, there's plenty of Lynch-esque weirdness in this film. Whether it be a Karate performing Kid who loves Pancakes or the darkly comic death by Harmonica. There's fun here for all the family. But Roth also adds genuinely disturbing moments to the film, such as one character shaving her legs until the skin has peeled away or one infected character being left in a shed to rot until she's put out of her misery with a shotgun.

I also can't finish this off without mentioning Death by Dog, a scene I found genuinely disturbing even though Roth shows almost none of it. It should be clear to anyone now that Death by Dog is one of the only things that really scares me. That and the thought of being gummed to Death by an old person.