Cabin Fever 2

There will be many who condemn Cabin Fever 2, and reject it to the shackles of B-movie apathy. And there will be a few who rejoice in this offbeat sequel's deliciousness and shenanigans. I am one of the latter. This horror-comedy is fun down to the last frame. They have the glum awkwardness, impulsive naivety and mixed up confusion of high school teenage angst down perfectly. And as for the semi-redneck cop? He's baaack. And, in case you didn't know, he's seen this kind of thing before (AKA Cabin Fever 1). There is a creative intelligence behind this movie, from the cartoon imbedded beginnings to the masterfully honed caricatures, to the straightforward, impeccable direction. Way better than Carrie (the new one), and supremely more funny. There have been a few Australian movies in the same vein, such as, "Who Loves Mandy Lane?" which is a bit of a sub-genre in the horror-comedy films--a kind of sadistic and gratuitous teenage eighties romp that is coming back round again. I loved cabin fever 2 because it is authentic, and does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, a campy regression into the heart of campy American cinema.

...I'm a gorehound!

Look...it's pretty obvious after watching part 2 that Ti West had multiple options:

• follow Roth's vision and develop a decent movie, or
• push the boundaries and make a grotesque, blood-riddled gore circus.

He very much went for the latter. Indeed, many of the reviews here aren't wrong. What makes the difference for me is that in my opinion, TW did what he did intentionally, passing on the the opportunity to craft a fully cohesive part 2 in exchange for putting out the most vile and disgusting sequel he could, with the money he had. What does that mean? Well,

• the acting is not superb but it's at least average,
• the script is likely the least developed part of the flick
• you get EXACTLY what he intended, which is likely why the ending is what it is, and the entire movie is barely more than 80 minutes.

Look...I could be wrong, but the purpose of CF2 is it not to take a prestigious ranking in the lexicon of horror cinema. It's GORE! There's really no other reason for its pervasive and continuous use and lack of other characteristics. That being the case, I enjoyed it! I didn't pick at the myriad of plot holes or script issues, or logically false issue that popped up, but enjoyed it for what it is...or a gorefest. Granted, I would have liked a better all around movie, but not at the expense of what he put out. There's just not enough straight-up gore flicks anymore, so I appreciated the graphic nature of the film.

It is worth noting that the fx are very well done. All the gore is done by way of practical fx, which is preferable to CGI. The largest part of the budget obviously went to the fx and it is noticeable.

All these meanderings are just my opinion, which means zilch, but for my purposes, being the gorehound I am, I enjoyed the flick. It's certainly not for the squeamish.

I mistakenly assumed that with Rider Strong repeating his role from the first film this sequel would continue that story, which was humorous and disturbing. I found that to be far from the case. The movie isn't worthy of being classed as B status. Performances are bad. Script almost non-existent. A thin plot exists to move the film from one gross-out scene to another. I could find nothing that would move me to recommend this film. How anyone could find something funny in this production is beyond me. It is one sick, twisted film whose only goal is to attempt to sicken the audience or desensitize viewers to the reality of tragedy in the real world. Perhaps I'm being a bit too philosophical for such low-brow "entertainment", but there is nothing redemptive about this feature. Cheap special effects, constant profanity, unlikeable characters (especially the deputy who cares only about himself). Whereas Cabin Fever displayed some originality, this sequel exists merely to cash in on its predecessor's name and reputation. There's no tension or sense of "something worse coming" that was present in the original. The movie itself is only about 72 minutes, followed by a 5 minute tangential story, which is itself followed by a crudely drawn cartoon of 2 or 3 minutes; filler, simply filler. There are better ways to waste 80 minutes.

Having seen the first Cabin Fever, which I really liked (it showcased Eli Roths talent for sick and twisted horror comedy, so to speak), I kinda had hoped this could be better. But even before watching the movie, I heard the "director" Ti West, distancing himself from this movie (at a Festival, where I didn't have another option/movie to choose from, that's why I chose to watch this anyway, despite the warning)!!!

He didn't like the movie and he didn't cut it together (there are also some additional scenes shot and edited into the movie, especially the ending) and he also said, that people might like it or hate it, but either way, he is not responsible for what people will think of the movie ...

Having said that, I for once thought it was dreadful. Almost every "funny" line doesn't work, the chemistry between the two best friends is off, not to mention that the American Pie style thing just doesn't work. Unfortunately the main character isn't as good in his role as he could have been (you might have seen him in "Dead Girl" where he is phenomenal). There is also a side story that is really bad (it's supposed to be funny, but it just isn't).

Some gory moments and a few actually not that bad one liners can't save this mess of a movie. There are movies out there, that are worse, but this still has got quite a few things wrong. If you want to see a good Ti West movie, watch his House of the Devil instead ...

Fast paced gore fest. Got what I paid for. Never boring, non cerebral, and a fun 90 mins.