Cabin Fever: The New Outbreak

So I take most movies as what they are, entertainment. But sometimes you can't help but get annoyed with stupidity/lack of common sense. This "update" really just "modernizes" the original Cabin Fever staying pretty true to the story line a some minor changes here and there... I was alright with this movie and tried to put up with it but Eli Roth has an ability to make his characters seem like the DUMBEST living sentient beings in the world. In the world of Horror movies, I understand, the people have to be lower than average intelligence and lack common sense so that the plot will progress cause instead of knocking on the door of a trailer so you can use the phone for help, the character decides to "peek" in through a window in stead EVEN tho all the lights are on... so the inhabitants obviously don't listen to his pleas for help cause they seem him as a sexual predator.

I was kind of excited for this cause the original Cabin Fever was (IMO) a ground breaking piece of indie horror, it came out during the time when indie films were coming out of the shadows and actually gaining momentum. But this movie, I tried to stick it out, I really tried but there are levels of stupidity in this that "cringe" is a gross understatement. If you saw the original Cabin Fever and liked it, give this one a go! It's not entirely bad. But if you haven't seen the original first...

WATCH THE ORIGINAL FIRST, PLEASE!!!

and Mr. Roth, please inject just a meager amount of common sense into your characters, please?

I'm not the one to hate on horror movie remakes I actually enjoy watching a classic remade for the modern audience. But that's only when the director can create a new modern twist or add more to what the original didn't have like what Zombie did for Carpenter's Halloween. But the remake of Eli Roth's Cabin Fever is just one of the most pointless horror remakes I've ever seen next to Psycho. The story of the movie is lame. It's everything you seen in the original just with different actors in these scenes. You actually know what's coming next. You even know what the characters are gonna say next. There's nothing new added in the directors own vision. It's the same Dog death opening scene. The scene where one of the characters gets his hand attacked by Dennis is the same. Even the camp fire story is the same. The only difference is the ending of the movie, which is not half bad. The characters are very unimportant to this movie or at least they felt like it. You don't pay even a minute of attention to them because, well they are supposed to be the same as well and they make the same dumb choices of survival as the original. The blood n gore effects seem to be up higher than the original. But it might it some gore lovers we do see a lot more blood all around in some scenes especially in the bath tub scene we see even some skin coming off.

I didn't enjoy this remake at all it's nothing, but watching the same movie you already seen. You know what's coming next. The characters die in the sane order as they did in the original. The only differences you'll find is the ending, higher blood n gore, and different actors who shouldn't be allowed to ever act in another movie again. I don't recommend you watch this waste of a remake. You'll have a much more better time re watching the original movie.

I'll admit I've never been much of an Eli Roth fan. The original Cabin Fever was a pretty bad movie but I wouldn't even recommend this film to Eli Roth fans, as it is a pretty pointless remake. Fans of the original probably should stay away.

If there was one positive thing about the original film, it was that it had that low budget charm to it. There's something about low budget horror films that I like and Cabin Fever had that. However, this remake does away with that charm as it obviously had a higher budget. A higher budget doesn't always mean a better film, though.

The acting in this remake is atrocious and the dialogue is even worse. The characters are all underdeveloped stereotypes that you really don't care about at all. Nearly all the scenes of the original are redone shot-for-shot, but they're handled in a much messier manner. There are a few minor differences, such as the "party man" cop character is now played by a female, for some reason.

As for positives, there aren't many. The cinematography was decent and the gore and makeup effects were pretty damn good actually. Some of the music was alright. But that's about it. I don't see why this film had to be made.

Overall, this is a shallow remake of a bad, low budget horror film from 2002. If you've never seen Cabin Fever but plan on watching it, I'd go with the original, as it is the better of the two. However, that's not saying much, as they're both pretty shitty. If you are a fan of the original, you probably won't like it much. But you might watch it anyway just to compare the two. I wouldn't pay much to see it, though. Maybe rent it if you get the chance.

3/10

While not a shot-for-shot remake (the angles and cinematography are different), this remake uses the same script as the 2002 original with slight alterations. Despite this seemingly pointless exercise, I was prepared to give it a chance and not hate it for failing to aspire to anything original. I'll go on the record saying I -wanted- to like this film, despite some unease after watching the trailer. I'm sad to say it fails to live up to the original in nearly every regard.

What sets this remake apart from it's 2002 predecessor is the lack of any chemistry between the actors. It's not that any one particular actor is singularly bad, it's that none of them feel like they're in the same movie. It literally feels as if they pulled random strangers off the streets and asked them to make-believe they were friends for a weekend. I simply couldn't buy that any of them would take off for a weekend together, much less have known one another for years, as is the case for at least two of the characters. They feel like strangers and it doesn't help that all of them seem to be acting as if they're in completely different films--the disconnect is that apparent. It's upsetting that, despite having many of the same scenes and lines as their original characters, everyone in the cast feels so disconnected from the script that they utterly fail to bring any of their characters to life. They're the ghosts of what we saw in the original film, the acting completely lifeless. It's as if none of them wanted to be there.

Roth's trademark humor is also excised in favor of a few random throwaway jokes, delivered in such a deadpan tone by the actors that each one falls flat on its face. This time around, the director goes for a more serious approach to the material (a mistake, I believe) and attempts to paint the film as a tragedy. Nothing attempts to sell this more than the overly-ambitious music score, which is so epic at times that it feels like it belongs in a big-scale war movie. The composer feels the need to John Williams this thing up at times, which just leaves the viewer scratching their heads at why such a big spectacle of a score is being utilized for a film that largely takes place in a single cabin.

As if to keep from being too familiar, the deaths are altered just enough to qualify as being original, as long as you don't count on being surprised. Practically everything is telegraphed a mile in advance thanks in no small part to the reliance on the original script so that even the prospect of new deaths isn't enough to warrant much excitement.

Perhaps the biggest blunder is the recasting of Deputy Winston as a woman, played by an actress with zero comedic timing (although this doesn't stop her from being handed humorous dialogue). The character is a painful reminder that no one invested in this remake knows how to bring life to their character, as is true with the weed-toting camper (played by Eli Roth in the original). No one would call the acting in Cabin Fever '02 a revelation, but it's as good as gold compared to this.

The entire film is permeated with a depressing lack of passion on or off camera. It's as if no one wanted to be doing this. Roth's film, while certainly underrated by many, at least felt as if it was made by someone who cares. This is a lifeless remake on par with the new Nightmare on Elm Street. Truly a flat, emotionally barren production not even worthy of viewing as a curiosity.

The film industry must be in real crisis if average films are being remade after little more then a decade. The original was an OK film, I wouldn't have said it was a classic, and this remake seems so unnecessary, it doesn't differentiate from the original in any way, it doesn't bring anything new or different, it's basically remade word for word. The gore scenes are somewhat improved, a little more dramatic, and the dog scene is more dramatic.

I have so very little to say here, as I didn't enjoy it all that much, it seems only a few years ago that I went to the Cinema to watch the original, I find it more disappointing that new ideas simply aren't there, there surely has to be a vast undiscovered writing talent out there.

mehh, 3/10